Sedona, Arizona
Sunny 32 Degrees
During a call with a mentoring client yesterday, the conversation turned to the art of asking questions during the selling process.
I thank my lucky stars I chanced upon this strategy years ago. If you ever get nervous when you’re talking to a prospect (you are talking to them right? email just doesn’t cut it), then developing this question asking skill is for you.
Understanding how to control a conversation without being “controlling” is extremely valuable. Not to mention profitable.
Can you do it?
Of course you can. But it does take some practice. To the right people, that’s no obstacle.
When I started using it, I was pretty bad at it. Maybe my clients didn’t know but I certainly wasn’t as fluid with it as I am now.
But just about anything worth doing is worth doing poorly… at first. You have to start somewhere.
What I like most about selling with questions (aka mining for gold) is that you can use questions to setup a situation where a prospect actually wants to buy from you.
And that’s a whole lot better than trying to “sell.” When you “sell” a client, you ruin your positioning. Once the sale closes, the client takes control. They are put in the position of power.
That’s because you made it clear you wanted to be there more than the prospect wanted you there.
That’s what we refer to as “not a smart move.”
Now I have no idea if this question asking skill will turn into tens of thousands of dollars for you like it did for me (and that was from a single client). It just depends on your business, your clients and the type of opportunities you attract.
But the money isn’t even the smartest reason to do this.
The real benefit to this skill is that your clients will be better served by your ability to truly discover what they need and want. (This is often NOT what they ask for by the way.)
And the ability to do THAT, over the long term, will really pay off.
Discover how to “mine this gold” for yourself using questions. I walk you through it here.