Saturday, May 10, 2014

How to Ask Good Questions in Sales Negotiations?

Ask Good Questions
How to Ask Good Questions in Sales Negotiation? - Knowing how to ask good questions in sales presentations and negotiations to achieve a desired outcome and objective is what distinguished an experienced sales professionals from amateurs. Learn this useful techniques and significantly enhance your sales results!


In a sales presentation or negotiation, what usually differentiate a good salesperson from a amateur salesperson would be the ability to ask good questions. By asking good questions, it allows a two-way exchange of valuable information and participation with the prospects, rather than a plain and boring delivery speech of the product or service. A good salesperson ask questions not only to understand his prospect better to build stronger relationship, but also seek to discover what is the actual need of his client and if his product could be the perfect fit to his prospect's requirements. Avoid asking close-ended "Yes" or "No" questions, but open-ended questions which allow your prospect the opportunity to elaborate and reveal more information. Below are some of the broad categories of questions that a good salesperson might ask to achieve his aim and objectives.

(1) Rapport Building Questions

These are questions salespersons asked to find out more about his prospect's characters, hobbies, likes and dislikes, so as to find a common interest he has with his prospect to build a relationship with him. They also help in displaying the salesperson's genuine interest in him and what he is doing.

"Wow that's a fine fishing rod that you have over here! Do you like fishing? How often do you go fishing?"

"Hey there's 2 beautiful kids in the photo! Are they your kids? How old are they?"

(2) Sales-Related Questions

Sales-related questions allow a salesperson to ask about his prospect's previous purchases of similar products, be them from his company or competitors, which can help him to gain insights into his prospect's buying behaviors and habits. A salesperson can also be asking questions about details with regard to this particular sale he is dealing with, so as to understand better his prospect's requirements and budgets.

"I see that you had purchased 2 policies from us before. Would you mind sharing with me what are your experiences with them? Was it good or bad?"

"What are the things you are looking for? Which are more important to you?"

"What is your budget for this project?"

(3) Clarification Questions

These questions seek to clear out any doubts that might be around, so as to avoid any potential confusions or misunderstandings that could occurred. They can also be used to extract out more information from your prospect should he replied a brief and unclear answer. Sometimes these questions are also asked to reiterate some important points that a salesperson wished to emphasize.

"Help me understand, could you elaborate more on ..."

"Could you give an example?"

(4) Objection Seeking Questions

These questions are used by salespersons to find out the exact and true concerns that a prospect might have that are holding them back from committing to the purchase. Only after the true objections are identified and addressed can the salesperson move his prospect a step closer to close the deal.

"Do you have any concerns so far?"

"May I know what is holding you back?"

"If money is not an issue here, would you ..."

(5) Ask-for-Action Questions

Sometimes when a prospect is hesitant and not ready to commit, it is always helpful for a salesperson to nudge or encourage his prospect a little bit by asking some Ask-for-Action questions. These questions are asked to propose for a close and go ahead with the project implementation, or at least to fix up an appointment for the next discussion to sort out further details.

"Do you have any further concerns? If not, I suggest that we move on to ..."

"Now since we have this sorted out, why don't we ..."

"Would you agree that ..."


Further Reads:
HubPage Article - "How to Ask Good Questions?"
Slideshare Slides - "How to Ask Good Questions?"

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