{"id":1399,"date":"2008-01-31T09:30:14","date_gmt":"2008-01-31T15:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/01\/qualifying-is-in-the-questions\/"},"modified":"2008-01-31T09:26:28","modified_gmt":"2008-01-31T15:26:28","slug":"qualifying-is-in-the-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/01\/qualifying-is-in-the-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Qualifying Is In The Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Successful selling is far more than being a smooth talker.\u00a0 It requires the ability to listen <em>attentively<\/em> and move within the conversation.\u00a0 This principle is discussed in a ManageSmarter.com commentary titled <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.managesmarter.com\/msg\/content_display\/sales\/e3i36f550df45cfda9727eb9cdc43e700f0\">Build Sales Relationships: Consultative Questioning<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The opening recollection of the author&#8217;s first sales position is excellent:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I marched into orientation, ready to close like a champion. That&#8217;s when my real learning began. My manager opened training with a startling insight:<br \/>\n&#8220;Want to be successful in sales? Keep your mouth shut and your ears open.&#8221; His approach contradicted everything I read: He stressed dialogue instead of dominance and questioning in place of presenting. And he always customized his approach based on what the other party shared. In his world, sales was not a game of breaking down a prospect&#8217;s barriers. It was a means to identify a solution and determine whether forging a partnership had value to either party.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Consultative selling is a buzzword you hear often in today&#8217;s sales world.\u00a0 I&#8217;m not sure what that term encapsulates, but the approach is sound.\u00a0 Good questions are the backbone of good qualifying.\u00a0 The ability to listen to the prospect&#8217;s answers is the second phase that leads to success.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Listen.<\/strong> Let your prospects open up. Identify what they value in a solution and a business relationship. Listen for what isn&#8217;t being said and probe. Your prospects won&#8217;t always share the most accurate or pertinent information. Their narrative will naturally be compromised by a lack of exposure to a problem, a discomfort with revealing specifics or even personal biases and agendas. That&#8217;s why patience and guidance are so key: the more your prospects talk, the sharper the picture that emerges.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Pre-canned presentations are a thing of the past.\u00a0 It is uncomfortable to watch a salesperson prematurely click into presentation mode.\u00a0 When this happens,\u00a0 you can watch the prospect&#8217;s eyes glaze over right in front of you.<\/p>\n<p>Listening to the prospect allows the salesperson to move within the discussion.\u00a0 The author&#8217;s point is an important one &#8211; typically, prospects do not start the discussion by saying, &#8220;Thank goodness you are here.\u00a0 What dollar amount should I write on the check and when can you start?&#8221;\u00a0 In fact, they are usually coy about the real problem, depth of a problem or even that they have a problem.<\/p>\n<p>The ability to dig out this information through questions is the key differentiation between average salespeople and superstars.\u00a0 Keep this fact in mind when you are hiring salespeople.\u00a0 Their questions will reveal much about their abilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Successful selling is far more than being a smooth talker.\u00a0 It requires the ability to listen attentively and move within the conversation.\u00a0 This principle is discussed in a ManageSmarter.com commentary titled Build Sales Relationships: Consultative Questioning. The opening recollection of the author&#8217;s first sales position is excellent: I marched into orientation, ready to close like a champion. That&#8217;s when my real learning began. My manager opened training with a startling insight: &#8220;Want to be successful in sales? Keep your mouth shut and your ears open.&#8221; His approach contradicted everything I read: He stressed dialogue instead of dominance and questioning in place of presenting. And he always customized his approach based&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/01\/qualifying-is-in-the-questions\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,16,9],"tags":[1762,187,270,142],"class_list":["post-1399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","category-hiring-salespeople","category-sales-techniques","tag-hiring-salespeople","tag-sales-qualifying","tag-sales-questions","tag-sales-technique"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-mz","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1551,"url":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/05\/a-quick-questioning-tip\/","url_meta":{"origin":1399,"position":0},"title":"A Quick Questioning Tip","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"May 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This tip comes from the Selling Power archives: Never ask a question without first explaining why you're asking. Nirenberg says, \"Just asking a question puts the listener on the spot. However, if you let him know why you're asking, it makes him a partner,\" Nirenberg goes on to explain, \"People\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Communication&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2589,"url":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2015\/06\/cultural-qualifying\/","url_meta":{"origin":1399,"position":1},"title":"Cultural Qualifying","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I ran into an old coworker, whom I consider a good friend, at a coffee shop this Friday morning.\u00a0 He is the VP of Sales with 75 or so direct reports.\u00a0 His company is international with a majority of their revenue occurring in Asia. He was telling me about sales\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Assessing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Assessing","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/assessing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2526,"url":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2013\/04\/interrogating-a-prospect\/","url_meta":{"origin":1399,"position":2},"title":"Interrogating A Prospect","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"April 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Questions are the backbone of qualifying any sales opportunity.\u00a0 Yet, many salespeople seem to flounder with this approach and I believe it comes from over coaching\/training.\u00a0 Ask this series of questions, use this linguistic trick, turn the tables on them\u2026improper use of these \u201cmoves\u201d stands out to every prospect. To\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Communication&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2105,"url":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/09\/q-is-for-qualifying-questions\/","url_meta":{"origin":1399,"position":3},"title":"Q Is For Qualifying Questions","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"September 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I come across this often \u2013 a company wants to hire a superstar salesperson and the hiring manager\u2019s first instinct is to find a loquacious talker.\u00a0 Perhaps you have seen this approach too?\u00a0 Clearly no readers of the Hire Sense would administer this approach in their hiring. Right? Ok, maybe\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring Salespeople&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1067,"url":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/07\/what-does-success-look-like\/","url_meta":{"origin":1399,"position":4},"title":"What Does Success Look Like?","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"July 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this week, myself and the President of one of our customers interviewed a sales candidate. We purposely put the candidate through an extensive interview to observe his ability to handle a lengthy discussion (similar to our customer's typical call). After putting him through the paces, we gave him the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring Salespeople&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56110,"url":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2019\/10\/gathering-giving\/","url_meta":{"origin":1399,"position":5},"title":"Gathering > Giving","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"October 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This statement is going to sound blunt, but gathering information is always more important than giving information in a selling process. \u00a0This truth may sound counterintuitive to the stereotypical sales process. \u00a0However, it is crucial to understand this approach. The stereotypical thought is that good talkers make good salespeople. \u00a0I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Techniques&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Techniques","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-techniques\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Listening.png?fit=560%2C315&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Listening.png?fit=560%2C315&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Listening.png?fit=560%2C315&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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