Questions Are Always Your Best Answer

Questioning and listening go hand-in-hand. One without the other is fairly useless. Without thought-provoking questions, it is difficult to sustain meaningful listening. Unless you are lucky and you show up at the selling event with your prospect willing to spill their guts with valuable and sensitive information, you are going to need to prompt them with well thought out questions to get them to open up. You must first and foremost be good at asking questions before you can get good at being a good listener.

Salespeople aren’t generally bad listeners. What they really are is, bad at asking the right questions to elicit information that warrants listening to. Why bother listening intently to your prospect when all you are getting from them is trite, superficial and inconsequential information? But once you get good at asking the right questions you will be falling all over yourself intently listening since it will be so beneficial and rewarding to building your sales case.

Salespeople generally find it difficult to get the questioning process going because most prospects take control right away by asking questions of the salesperson. Since most salespeople are more than happy to oblige by giving out information, they not only lose control of the sales call, but most importantly, they lose the opportunity to build trust by asking important questions.

To combat this universal sales problem, salespeople can redirect the flow of information by answering questions with questions. This strategy is aptly called “redirecting”. For example: “I’m hearing a couple of questions in that question. Could you share with me what you had in mind when you brought that up?”

Many salespeople are reluctant to use this effective line of questioning for the following reasons:

• They believe their job is to give information, not get it.
• They are product-centric and not customer-centric.
• They aren’t aware that prospects ask preprogrammed questions that disguise their real questions.
• They fear the truth.
• Their mother told them it isn’t polite to answer a question with a question.
• They naively trust prospects.
• They are too impatient to seek greater clarification.
• They fear questions by their nature are intrusive and unwelcome.
• They don’t like to feel they aren’t in control.
• They fear healthy conflict.
• They aren’t aware that whatever questions a prospect asks them, it is really all about the prospect and not about the salesperson’s company or their offering.

Since redirecting goes against the norm for the typical line of questioning, it will be important to soften the impact of these powerful questions. It will not only be critical for the prospect to be comfortable in answering the redirect, but also for the salesperson to feel comfortable in delivering the redirect. Therefore, it is advisable to have a cushioning or buffer that acts as a psychological stroke to soften the impact of your follow-up question. The following are some examples of cushioning statements:

• “That’s a very good question.”
• “I’m glad you brought that up.”
• “Would it be okay to first ask you…”
• “In order to give you the best answer…”
• “Help me out if you could…”
• “I’m worried…”
• “I’m afraid…”
• “Call me stupid or naïve…”
• “A lot of people don’t buy the argument I’m going to give you.”
• “Let me ask you an unsettling question.”
• “Pardon me for asking…”
• “I’m curious…”
• “I can’t help but wonder…”
• “I probably haven’t earned the right to ask this question”…
• “Would it be too much for me to ask…”

Redirecting is a powerful sales tool in the information economy. It allows you to redirect the flow of information from the prospect to the salesperson. This is where you are paid and rewarded for your efforts. Because the information economy has forced the traditional value proposition of salespeople to change, salespeople have to redefine their value by getting information instead of giving information. That is why in today’s information economy, salespeople are paid and handsomely rewarded for their questions, not their answers.

Redirecting allows you to place all the focus on the most important person in the selling equation… the prospect. By subordinating your role as the salesperson, you are less likely to give out information prematurely, reduce yourself to a commodity and relegate yourself to being a free consultant.

The ultimate softening statement is repeating the question in a thoughtful and methodical manner to let your prospect know that they were heard, before you redirect them with your follow-up question. Here is an example:

Prospect: “Tell me a little about your company, what areas you specialize in, who your customers are, what type of training you do, and how long you’ve been in business.”

Salesperson: “Those are excellent questions to get us started. Let me begin by telling you that over the years our average customer has had problems with their salespeople having no defined sales methodology, making it very difficult to manage and properly asses their pipelines for forecasting. Our training teaches companies what to do with frustrations they have with their salespeople who sell simply on price and their margins suffer as a consequence. Our company specializes in working with salespeople who have serious long sales cycles because they recklessly quote, propose, or present before they properly qualify opportunities. Are any of these issues impacting you in any meaningful way?”

The average salesperson would have recognized this question as an irrefutable selling sign and they would have excitedly and enthusiastically answered the question with facts, figures, supporting research, exhaustive lists of Fortune 500 customers, detailed background on the founding fathers of the company and their pedigree educations and advanced degrees. Then they would proudly present with great fanfare the well-appointed, beautifully designed, perfectly bound four volume set of course work and supporting audio CD’s and DVD’s.

However, the only thing that was on the mind of the prospect when they asked those questions was, “Do you understand our business and can you help us?” Prospects disguise their questions and withhold incriminating questions and information as a defense mechanism. When you answer all their questions so excitedly with all your supporting bells and whistles, know that you are compromising and marginalizing your sales position.

In all the years that I have answered or better yet, not answered that silly and inane question (tell me about your company, who do you do business with, how long have you been in business?), I’ve never had one prospect who wasn’t satisfied with my non-answer. And the reason for that is that I skillfully and in a nurturing, softening way always redirect the focus to the real issue, which is what they really care about: “Do you understand my problems and can you help me?” And that issue rarely has anything to do with what kind of training we do and who we’ve done it with. It has everything to do with asking insightful questions to get to the root of understanding the prospect’s problems. And that is what I did with the redirect example.

Imagine all the lost opportunities, the millions of dollars in lost sales, the lost chances to engage your prospects in meaningful and valuable dialogue because you enthusiastically answered questions that really weren’t the real questions that they really wanted answers to.

That’s why you have salespeople who are in shock and are incapacitated, like deer caught in the headlights, because they answered the wrong question to perfection, the answer to a question the prospect never had an interest in getting an answer to, and now the prospect feels misunderstood and takes their business elsewhere. Or worse yet, tells you to put a proposal together, then stalls you, misleads you and wastes your time. Salespeople are their own worst enemies. By recklessly answering all questions without learning the intent behind those fateful questions, they only dig their own graves deeper and deeper.

Here is a comprehensive sampling of questions that redirect and have a buffer or softening statement to accompany them:

• “I basically understand your question, but I’m not sure if I understand where you are going with this. Could you please share with me what you had in mind?”
• “I think we may be getting ahead of ourselves with that question. Could we first establish what you are looking for?”
• “Maybe a better question to ask, at this juncture, that I believe really gets to the heart of your question is…”
• “Before we tackle that, could we first step back for a moment to explore what your goals are?”
• “I’m not sure I understand the full extent of your question. For my understanding, would be you be kind enough to elaborate?”
• “That’s a great question. However, I’m hearing a couple of questions in that. Possibly you could help me out.”
• “I get asked that question a lot. Usually when someone asks me that I find it is for a good reason. Would you be kind enough to share that with me?”
• “Sometimes people ask me that but in reality what they really want to ask is…”
• “Could I answer that first by asking…?”
• “Would it be inappropriate to first ask you what you had in mind?”
• “Can I ask you a stupid question first?”
• “In order to give you the best answer, can I first ask you…?”
• “I’m curious why that’s important to you at this stage of the game?”
• “Can I put your question on hold and get back to that later, because what I think may be important at this stage is…?”
• “That seems important to you. Why is that, if I may so boldly ask?”
• “Help me out if you could; was there something you had in mind?”
• “Before I give you the four volume answer, do you mind if I ask you why that is important to you?”
• “That’s an excellent question; I rarely have prospects that ask me that. Could you share with me what you had in mind?”
• “I’m glad you brought that up; that’s a frequently asked question that I don’t always sufficiently cover. Before I answer that, was there a specific reason why you brought that up?”

Redirecting also works well on statements that prospects make that aren’t necessarily a question but appear to be so. A perfect example of this would be, “Your price is high.” Obviously, that isn’t a question, yet salespeople too often answer it as if it were a question.

Without further clarification, you don’t know if that means “your price is high and I’m going to have to live with it”, “your price is high and we need to negotiate”, or, “I’m not going to buy because your price is totally out of my budget.” Too often salespeople respond to these statements as if they are objections when they may not be; instead, they may just be an observation. Therefore, it is always a good rule never to answer an unasked question.

So when your prospect makes a statement instead of asking you a question, such as, “we are happy, we’ve been using XYZ for 10 years”, or, “we only work with ISO certified companies”, seek to clarify before responding. Here are some more examples of redirects:

• “Which means?”
• “You are telling me that for a reason?”
• “And…”
• “What else is there?”
• “So…”
• “Is that a question or an observation?”
• “Keep going…”

Another key point to redirecting is to be detached, light, unemotional, and to have fun when answering silly, premature, and inappropriate questions that prospects may ask that really can’t be answered seriously. Of course, timing of the flowing answers depends on the situation, the circumstances, and the rapport you have with your prospect. Here are some examples:

Prospect: “What makes you different?”

Salesperson: “I’m not sure. Maybe nothing at all. What were you looking to be different? And why?”

Prospect: “Are you expensive?”

Salesperson: “Yes we are and we may or may not be worth it. It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish.”

Prospect: “Why should we buy from you?”

Salesperson: “At this stage, I’m not necessarily sure you should. Do you mind if I ask you some questions to see if we are even a good fit for your company?”

Here are some guidelines to making your redirects have more impact:

• Redirecting is best accomplished in face-to-face meetings and isn’t as effective on the phone due to the difficulty in establishing rapport.
• If you look at it as a game and a tricky technique it will do more harm than good.
• If your prospect poses the same questions twice, answer directly.
• Redirecting works best with humility and authentic and genuine interest.
• Lower your voice and slow your tempo to gain rapport when asking a tough redirect.
• Use with caution with prospects who are distant, unemotional and unengaged.

Redirecting is a mindset that requires discipline and a strong commitment to getting to the truth. Redirecting requires genuine interest and curiosity of the salesperson to go beyond the typical surface and superficial nature of most questions that prospects ask of them. It allows inquisitive salespeople to really understand the true intent and purpose of the prospect’s questions. With most questions that prospects pose, the real intent is hidden behind safe and predictable questions. The real motivation and underlying theme behind most of their questions are: do you understand my business and can you really help me? Salespeople will generally not get to that information by directly answering most questions. Keep in mind that prospects care more about your level and depth of understanding of their business and their problems than they do your solutions. Redirecting is one of the most efficient way that salespeople can truly get to the heart of what is important to their prospects.