10 Tough Questions To Ask Prospects

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  1

  Ian P

  06/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: 10 Tough Questions To Ask Prospects

  As a professional buyer, my response would be;
  Questions 1,2,3,7 and 10 are fair enough and would get a straight answer.
  Q4 is pushing the line and certainly the second half of Q4 about ego issues would get short shrift. Not my position to divulge the thinking processes of my peers, even if they were relevant.
  Q8 and 9, I would ask for an explanation of the questions. As asked the topics are not the salesman's business, but further, more precise questions may deserve an answer. E.G. How are you reacting to the credit crunch? or Is the company coping with the economic slowdown without layoffs? This kind of questioning is more acceptable and gets general answers that may be useful to the vendor.
  Q6 would simply get the answer; "I don't care. Tell me how you would fill the gap if they reacted badly".
  Q5 would get a "what do you mean 'remedial actions' are you suggesting we are at fault if we don't buy from you?"
  
  Certainly I feel that this list of questions is a good guide to a salesman for points of discussion and are generally important to him and his business, but as listed they might well cause offence. They would need to be more carefully phrased and made relevant to the prospect by careful research.

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  2

  joannesblack

  06/23/09 | Report as spam

  RE: 10 Tough Questions To Ask Prospects

  Make the case for Return on Investment. Find out the dollar value of the average sale and compare that to the small investment they will make with you. When a sales person positions his sales solution as a "must have" and not a "nice to have," the sale is made.

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  3

  Sid Herron

  06/23/09 | Report as spam

  RE: 10 Tough Questions To Ask Prospects

  RE: Comment #1:
  
  That's excellent feedback. I think I know what Q4 is trying to uncover, but agree that there's probably a better way to do it. Nearly every salesperson has been burned by thinking s/he was dealing with the decision-maker only to find out differently when it is too late. One way to try to uncover issues is to ask, "Who besides yourself would be involved in making a decision like this?" and then probing further on how those people approach the decision-making process.
  
  I absolutely agree with the comments on Q8 & Q9.
  
  It seems to me that Q6 might be relevant in some selling situations, such as when the customer has been buying widgets from your competition for a long time, and you're trying to unseat them. Again, there's probably a better way to ask the question, maybe something like, "Ian, you've been buying these from XYZ Co. for a long time. They're probably not going to be very happy about me getting this deal...is that going to cause a problem for you?"
  
  Q5 goes straight to the issue of pain, but is again poorly worded. If you have established that pain exists (and you should have), you should also have asked what other things the customer has done to deal with the pain, and how those things have worked out. In the context of that conversation, once you've made the case that pain exists, and that you can solve it, it's not unreasonable to ask what they view as their other alternatives if they don't go with your solution.

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  4

  jad67

  06/23/09 | Report as spam

  RE: 10 Tough Questions To Ask Prospects

  Contributor #1 is, to a large extent, highlighting the cultures of "two nations divided by a common language".
  
  Compared with the UK, business speak in the USA is more straightforward, less concerned with sensibilities, and surprisingly uniform in usage.

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  5

  upshift

  06/24/09 | Report as spam

  RE: 10 Tough Questions To Ask Prospects

  Q1 and Q10 are acceptable with a slight change in wording to
  Q10 "... should I be talking to someone else on the features
  and benefits of this proposal...?
  
  Q7 is acceptable only if the salesperson truly believes that
  there is a great opportunity for an agreement.
  
  Many of the other questions may be problematic if the buyer
  develops a perception that the salesperson doesn't believe,
  or trust, the buyer.
  
  Q6, in my opinion, seems ridiculous.