subject: Great Questions For Sales People [print this page] Here are great questions for sales peopleHere are great questions for sales people. Sometimes, in order to be an effective salesperson, it is not about knowing the right answers, but knowing the right questions to ask.
What do you want to do next?
It can be common for sales people to push prospects to move forward. And part of that is trying to get the prospect to do what the sales person wants to do next in terms of meeting, seeing a demo, looking at paperwork, etc.
But sometimes a more powerful way to go in place of pushing the prospect along is to ask them what they want to do next. Of course you can make some suggestions as to what directions to go, but checking in and getting the prospect's opinion and make the forward direction come from them, can be a very health direction to go in terms of building relationships and creating quality leads.
When do you want to meet again?
Similar to the last question is asking the prospect when they want to meet again. Or this could asking the prospect what pace to move at.
This question is powerful as most sales people will push a prospect to meet and move as quickly as possible. But to let the prospect decide how fast to move can be one of the questions for sales people that will have a positive impact.
How do you feel about your current system/provider on a scale from 1 to 10?
It is very likely that your prospects are already using something in the your area. When that is the case, what you want to find out is how things are going with that. Are things great, OK, or could be better? Finding this out will help with your effort to create leads and qualify prospects.
You might not want to spend too much time when you come across prospects that are doing great as they may be tough to get to change. Instead, you are looking for those that are just OK or could be better and this is one of the questions for sales people that will help with that.
What is the decision making process?
You always will want to know how much power the prospect has and who the ultimate decision maker is. This can be sometimes a touchy subject to bring up, but to simply ask what the decision making process is and map it out will help you to identify where the authority buy lies.
Is there budget approved for this purchase?
Another important area to look at when qualifying prospects is to identify if they have money to spend. Questions for sales people to help with this is to ask if there is a budget that has been approved for the purchase that the prospect is considering.
11. What is the budget range that you are trying to stay within?
Another key area that you want to find out is how much the prospect is looking to spend. This can be both tough to ask and tough to get an answer. One way to approach this is to be very direct and ask what the budget range is that they are trying to stay within.
