Don’t Ask ‘If...?', Ask ‘Which...?'

This is the most underused question in sales. Unlock the secret to improving your sales with the subtle, yet impactful, 'power of choice' strategy. 

Join Bob Morrell and Jeremy Blake as they reveal how offering options can shift the customer's mindset from a passive observer to an active decision-maker. Ever been trapped by the 'yes or no' approach? We'll show you how flipping the script from 'if' to 'which' not only empowers your customers but improves conversion rate. Jeremy illustrates this with tales from his waiter days, where the 'power of which' dramatically increased his tips!
 
This episode isn't just about theory; it's a practical guide to honing your sales technique across a spectrum of scenarios. We discuss the critical importance of having a well-thought-out product range and how failing to present it effectively can lead to missed opportunities and lost sales. It's a candid chat about the mistakes salespeople often make and the tricks to avoid them. And for managers eager to sharpen their team's edge, there's a treasure trove of insights to take back to the sales team. Another of Elmer Wheeler’s gems, this tip is handy for every type of sales, retail, telephone and business. 

Please listen and share!

Explore resources, insights, and tools tailored to support your team's success and strategic growth at realitytraining.com.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:14

Welcome to the Reality is Sales training. This is Bob Morrell, and I'm joined by my friend and colleague, jeremy Blake, and today we're going to talk about another wheeler point. In our previous episode we talked about don't sell the steak, sell the sizzle, and today we're going to move on to another of his key points, which is very, very simple Don't ask. If ask which, jeremy, what does that?

Speaker 2 0:41

mean? It means you're giving a customer a choice, and it's a choice between something and something, rather than something and nothing. And I wonder if you'd like to try this. No, thank you. Whereas, which of these flavours would you like to try? Ooh, I'll try the raspberry chocolate, please. It's so obvious, and yet I have seen the power of this personally, which I'll explain in a moment, bobby Well.

Speaker 1 1:08

I also think it's important to make the point that many of our listeners will be selling a range of products or services. Okay, there'll be a range. There'll be a lower cost range of stuff, a middle range cost and a higher range cost of stuff. And, depending on what you buy, you'll get more for your money. And the reason you have a range is so that you can help the customer select which part of your products or services are right for them. That's the reason you have a range. And yet so often we hear people say look, that's it, that's what you need. And the person goes well, I don't really want that. And they go oh, okay, and they walk away because they haven't given that customer a selection of options or they haven't said it's either this one or this one for you. And these are the reasons why. And so, because they don't give the customer that choice, they lose sales as a result. There is no point in you having a range unless you're going to make it appealing to your customers.

Speaker 2 2:09

It's a really good point, because I think often salespeople are sort of pushing or excited about maybe a certain product and then when the customer isn't interested in it, they think it's over, rather than going back to the option of discussing something else in the range. Now, personally speaking, I was a waiter. I was in Soho, and the higher the bill back in 93, the higher the bill now for anybody, the more tip I would receive, and so I wanted people to have as much food as possible, as much drink as possible, and so quite often I'd have couples who would say things. For example, when I would come in the dessert menu, time was coming around they'd say, well, I'm a bit full, and I'd simply say, okay, I understand.

Speaker 2 2:54

Well, which dessert are you going to share? And they would go oh yeah, good point, we can share one. But even before that, which of these three wines do you think will go best with your steak? It's assumptive selling, but at the same time, you put over the final decision and the choice back to your customer, and I was earning fantastic tips through the power of which. It's the most underused open question word, and we urge you to absolutely lock into it.

Speaker 1 3:34

The Reality is. Sales Training is for salespeople at all levels and their managers. If you're a manager who needs development, check out Reality Training's manager's programs Reality Training Selling Certainty At realitytrainingcom. I remember some years ago we worked with a retailer who had a series of low-cost additional products all around their till and these would be half-price products, and often the customer would arrive at the till and the question would be are you interested in any of our half price products? I don't even need to look at them. No, thanks, not interested. All they needed to do was change that to ah, which of our half price products might you be interested in? Um, which? Okay? Well, I have to make a selection. Then I would more be interested in one of those, and off we go. So, just by changing that, would you to which of these would you like? The person then starts to select and you can immediately see that a percentage of people will go yeah, okay, I'll have one of those, and so that's a great thing for additional sales as well. I sold you this main thing and it's cost a certain amount of money.

Speaker 1 4:54

And which of these additional accessories would you like? Not, are you going to have an accessory? It's. Which of these accessories would go best with that? Well, I think it's one of these over here. Now, that assumptive as Jeremy said assumptive way of making that point to the customer that you have a selection of things that you could buy as well is a really good way forward, because it also infers that other people who've made this purchase have also made selections of this type too, because it's a very natural thing to ask. Now, I would say, for the over 20 odd years that we've been doing this, which is the most underused question in sales, which is bizarre when you think about it. It's so useful. So I hope that listening to this, you'll think right, how can I adjust my language so I use which more?

Speaker 2 5:38

often this, you'll think right, how can I adjust my language so I use which more often? In his book, which is called Tested Sentences, that Sell, he talks about exclamation mark salespeople who are presenting and pushing. This is fantastic, I know I'm right. Nothing else works like it. Oh, it's brilliant. We come across lots of salespeople like that who are still exclamation mark salespeople. He says don't club them with exclamation marks, hook them with question marks. And that's what which does. But it still has that assumptive air, as we've said. So which way are you?

Speaker 1 6:07

going to use which. Thanks for listening. We'll see, on another, the reality of sales training very soon. Bye for now.