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Entelechy Unveils New Web Site
While Entelechy's been in the business of developing training solutions that help clients increase the performance of their people for over 13 years, we've always found it difficult to explain exactly what we did and how our approach is so unique. To help communicate who we are and what we do, we've completely revamped our website and have moved from a focus on Entelechy's customizable modules (which are still available at Customizable Training Solutions) to a focus on our core business: creating training solutions to help businesses increase sales, productivity, and performance.
Please check out the new www.unlockit.com
where we've:
Communication Skills Series Part 1: QUESTIONING
In today’s competitive environment of solution selling, the most important skill in a salesperson’s toolkit is
the ability to ask effective questions. The days of being able to show up at a customer’s site and give a general product demonstration are over. If you want to win business today, you need have a three dimensional view of your customer’s business. You need to know what their business does, understand their long term strategy, and know how they plan to execute that strategy. You also need to unearth the client’s true issues, and then demonstrate how your solution will help that client solve those issues-and at the same time reach their business goals. In short, you need to be
Customer Focused.
How do we become customer focused and simultaneously discover the relevant information?
After doing some thoughtful research about your client’s business, you engage your customer in a conversation about themselves and their business, and then
you ask questions. As the client's trust level increases with you, they will begin to share in greater detail the true issues their organization is facing. The process is simple, but being able to execute this strategy can be extremely difficult.
Because every encounter with a customer holds the possibility that the client will open up and share, it’s important that each salesperson be prepared to ask effective questions. Are your questions allowing the customer to explore their issue in full detail?
The questions you ask should allow the customer to explore his or her issues in full detail and at the same time allow them to start considering the business value of addressing each issue. A successful sale is directly linked to
effective questions! Try structuring your questions around the four primary types of questions successful sales representatives use when they question their customer. They are:
Fact: These are the questions that give you a snapshot of what is going on in your customer’s business. These questions will give you the basic information, and answer who, what, where, and when. A fact question is intended to collect facts, information, and background data. For example:
Salesperson Question: “How many employees do you plan to hire in the upcoming year?”, or “How many locations does XYZ have globally?”
Issue: Once you have a good feel for the general state of affairs in your client’s business, you can begin to focus your questions around the customer’s business issues. Issue questions get customers to think about their needs, issues, and challenges. Issue questions should relate to your overall solution (for purposes of this example let’s say you’re a hiring firm). For example:
Uncovered Fact: Company XYZ plans to hire 100 new sales people by the end of the fiscal year.
Salesperson Question: “What challenges do you face as you plan to reach your goal of hiring 100 new sales people by the end of the fiscal year?”
Possible Answer: “We don’t have enough resources to handle the sheer volume of candidates.”
Related Impact: The goal of the related impact question is expanding upon any issues uncovered, and also gets your customer to articulate the impact of his/her business issue. This can be tricky and requires both skills and patience on your part. Let’s take the previous example to build upon:
Uncovered Business Issue: Not enough internal resources to handle the volume of candidates to be screened, interviewed, and selected.
Salesperson’s Resulting Impact Question: “What do you think the impact might be if you are not able to get some help during this hiring process?” or “100 new hires is a lot of candidates. How are you going to insure that they are all quality candidates? or “How does not having enough internal resources affect you personally?”
Possible Answer: “The impact of not getting help during this hiring process is enormous. There is a very real possibility that if we don’t get help we won’t reach our hiring goals, which in turn means sales won’t have enough people to meet their quotas.”
Solution Question: Solution questions confirm the value of solving the business issue for the customer, and they put the resolved issue in a positive light toward your solution. Solution questions should ONLY be used CAREFULLY- once the entire issue and the related impact are explored fully- otherwise you’ll set yourself up for failure.
Salesperson’s Solution Question: “If you knew you could acquire seasoned help who could handle the screening and selection process for your company, what would that mean to you?”
Possible Answer: “That would be a relief and help me get this project done faster and more efficiently!”
After you get your answers to your solution questions you are very close to positioning your solution to your
customer, but that’s a whole other subject and future article. The process of questioning looks simple, but it actually requires practice and skill. So, start by looking at the questions you are asking your clients. Are they customer focused? Are they helping him or her see the value of solving their issues? Are you a true consultant?
The kind of questions you ask and the way you ask them determines the quality of information you receive back from your customer. Crafting your questions well allows you to get more information, control the conversation, understand the situation, and build rapport. Customer focused questioning will lead you and your customer to a deeper understanding of the entire picture. Good questions help you sell!
Other Do’s and Don'ts of Questioning
Do: Ask one question at a time.
Do: Be quiet and patiently wait for the answer. This gives your client time to think and give you an appropriate response.
Do: Use open ended questions as much as possible. These questions are the who, what, where, when, why, and how’s of questioning.
Do: Build questions around the customer’s actual responses and needs.
Don’t: Answer your own questions.
Don’t: Cut your customer off.
Don’t: Sound like a survey.
Don’t: Ask more than one question at a time.
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Terence Traut, President of Entelechy "unlocking potential"
ttraut@unlockit.com
phone: 603-424-1237
fax: 603-424-6361
http://www.unlockit.com
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