Top Salespeople Use This 1 Simple Strategy To Outperform Everyone Else
So, what do the top 1% do differently?
I’m going to ask you the following question and all I want you to do is select “A” or “B”.
QUESTION: In which scenario is it easier to sell?
A) Getting on the phone with your prospect and explaining everything about your product or service and explaining why your company is the right one to work with.
B) Asking questions strategically to gain insight into the prospect to see if they’re even worth pursing within the first 5 min.
If you ask any salesperson if they “qualify” their prospect 99.9% of them will say, “yes”. However, asking a question or two at the beginning and then going straight into their sales pitch does not “qualify” anything.
They might think they know what their prospect wants after just one or two questions but they really don’t. Not knowing is a silent killer.
You could spend 45 min or even hours explaining why your product or service is the best until you’re blue in the face but at the end of the day your prospect doesn’t buy because they were just “browsing” and “looking to see what’s out there”. Ever get that before?
In case “A” the salesperson is speaking non-stop and seems flabbergasted at the end when they don’t make a sale.
The top 1% know within 5 minutes if their prospect is serious or not.
And believe it or not, a lot of times the salesperson doesn’t even bring up their product or service at all in the initial meeting. You can’t help somebody if you don’t know what help they need.
Thinking they need help and knowing they need help are two very different things. The most successful salespeople are masters of qualification.
They’ve mastered the art of asking questions that get to the heart of their prospect’s needs and translate those needs into a specific business solution. Most importantly, they’re willing to walk away if it’s not a good fit.
Here’s why most salespeople don’t follow this approach: They don’t know what to ask.
They think that by whipping out their sales pitch, they’ll quickly convince the prospect to buy their product or service (which is pretty unlikely). The best way to learn what to say when qualifying your prospects is by learning how to ask better questions.
More specifically — ask open ended questions that get prospects talking about themselves and what they really want. This is totally counterintuitive and goes against what most salespeople have been taught since day one.
But it works and it can work for you because asking a few strategic questions first helps salespeople identify hot leads that are worth their time instead of talking to people who aren’t going to buy from them anyway.
Once somebody has identified what their pain points are and what they need help with can you then help them.
At that point in time the sale is already 85% complete.
The salesperson now doesn’t come off as “salesy” but rather as a “trusted advisor”. And people listen to their “trusted advisors”.
