The Anatomy of a Qualifying Question - Why Most Salespeople Don"t Use Them Correctly
We all have our own personal and professional pet peeves, and mine has to do with qualifying questions.
As a cornerstone of the sales process-and a piece of it that can literally make or break your checking account balance-you would think every producer in the world would know them inside and out.
And you would be dead wrong.
In visit after visit, seminar after seminar, I talk with sales professionals throughout North America and the world every month - including men and women who are at the top 1% of their profession in terms of clients and income.
What I have found, incredibly consistently, is that not only do most salespeople use qualifying questions incorrectly, but most of them aren't even sure exactly what they are.
For instance, when asked to give an example of a good qualifying question, lots of seminar attendees will give me answers like: "what don't you like about your current product?" or "how important are delivery times and warranties to your company?" These aren't bad, as questions go, but they don't have anything to do with qualifying.
Instead, they are needs and wants questions, which have their place...
but only after you've qualified to be sure you have found the right decision maker.
If it sounds like I'm splitting hairs, I'm not.
The problem isn't that so many salespeople are calling these questions by the wrong name, but that they're using them in the wrong context.
Qualifying questions are just what they sound like: inquiries that tell us whether the person we are talking to is qualified to make a buying decision.
If they aren't, anything else we bother to ask - short of finding out who is the decision maker - is a sheer waste of time.
For that reason, qualifying questions absolutely have to come first.
Not only does it not matter what someone who isn't the decision maker thinks is important about the buying decision, they often can't even tell you what the real issues are.
They don't know because they aren't privy to those conversations, or don't understand enough of the company's business goals to make that call.
Finding the problem is easy; finding the person who can make the decision to solve it isn't.
Great salespeople are always great at asking questions, but it only works when you're asking the right people.
Save yourself a lot of time and energy by learning to find the right contact, without a doubt, by using qualifying questions before you start to worry about what the prospect might or might not want to buy - until you know if they can make a buying decision, their needs and wants don't count for much.
As a cornerstone of the sales process-and a piece of it that can literally make or break your checking account balance-you would think every producer in the world would know them inside and out.
And you would be dead wrong.
In visit after visit, seminar after seminar, I talk with sales professionals throughout North America and the world every month - including men and women who are at the top 1% of their profession in terms of clients and income.
What I have found, incredibly consistently, is that not only do most salespeople use qualifying questions incorrectly, but most of them aren't even sure exactly what they are.
For instance, when asked to give an example of a good qualifying question, lots of seminar attendees will give me answers like: "what don't you like about your current product?" or "how important are delivery times and warranties to your company?" These aren't bad, as questions go, but they don't have anything to do with qualifying.
Instead, they are needs and wants questions, which have their place...
but only after you've qualified to be sure you have found the right decision maker.
If it sounds like I'm splitting hairs, I'm not.
The problem isn't that so many salespeople are calling these questions by the wrong name, but that they're using them in the wrong context.
Qualifying questions are just what they sound like: inquiries that tell us whether the person we are talking to is qualified to make a buying decision.
If they aren't, anything else we bother to ask - short of finding out who is the decision maker - is a sheer waste of time.
For that reason, qualifying questions absolutely have to come first.
Not only does it not matter what someone who isn't the decision maker thinks is important about the buying decision, they often can't even tell you what the real issues are.
They don't know because they aren't privy to those conversations, or don't understand enough of the company's business goals to make that call.
Finding the problem is easy; finding the person who can make the decision to solve it isn't.
Great salespeople are always great at asking questions, but it only works when you're asking the right people.
Save yourself a lot of time and energy by learning to find the right contact, without a doubt, by using qualifying questions before you start to worry about what the prospect might or might not want to buy - until you know if they can make a buying decision, their needs and wants don't count for much.
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