Questioning Skills: Building Sales Success

How good are your questioning skills?
What if your questions could unlock the doors to deeper client relationships and increase sales?

Join us as we unpack the transformative art of questioning in sales, inspired by the insights of Elmer Wheeler. Too often, salespeople fall into the trap of asking generic, uninspired questions like "How's business?" or "How are you today?" We're here to change that narrative by showing you how to craft questions that not only engage but also gather crucial information, setting the stage for meaningful conversations and improved customer satisfaction. This episode is your guide to moving away from stale pitches and toward conversations that matter.

In our discussion, we emphasise the potency of open-ended questions and the strategic use of the six honest serving men—who, what, when, which, why, where—to elicit thoughtful responses. Discover why steering clear of emotionally charged "why" questions can create a more inviting atmosphere for dialogue. We delve into the concept of "Wickering" and explore layered questioning techniques through a humorous travel sales scenario, illustrating how these approaches can enrich interactions. By focusing on understanding client needs and facilitating informed decision-making, you'll learn how to offer solutions that truly resonate, thereby strengthening client relationships and paving the way for success.

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 another episode of the Reality is Sales training with your hosts Jeremy Blake and Bob Morrell. So today we're going to look at questioning the art, perhaps even the science, of questioning. I wonder if it's an art or a science. And we are going to begin with a little quote from one of the first sales trainers, elmer Wheeler, who we've talked about on previous episodes, and I think he gets this across extremely well.

Speaker 1 0:49

Don't club your prospects with exclamation marks. Hook them with question marks. Now, if you can imagine the little dot at the bottom of the exclamation mark, if you could pick that up and it was still attached to the long downward stroke above it, you could turn it around and club your customers by saying, hey, we do this brilliantly, we're amazing at this, we're fantastic, we've been in business for 40 years. You just tell them a load of stuff, whereas if you grabbed the little dot at the end of the question mark, you just went. Why do you think that's going to be useful? How could you improve what's led you to want to do that? You'd be hooking them in. So that's really the sort of visualization of that. It's a quote I like about questioning. How do you respond to a bit of elmer there, bobby?

Speaker 2 1:37

well, I think elmer's got it. I'm just thinking about all of our work over the last 20 odd years. I think it's probably fair to say that the majority of people we have trained fundamentally don't ask enough questions of their customers before they launch into the representation of their product or service. That's a fundamental thing. So if you're sitting listening to this now product or service that's a fundamental thing. So if you're sitting listening to this now, you are not asking enough questions to get the customer thinking and also to get them talking, which is going to give you information that is going to be very useful to you later.

Speaker 1 2:19

That is the reason for doing it. Not only are you not asking enough, in all likelihood the quality of your questions are probably not good enough. They are not well constructed, the grammar's a bit weak, the verb choice is poor, the compellingness of the language isn't insightful enough to really direct them to wishing to even search for the answer. So if we start, perhaps, with some really crap questions that we must tell you to never, ever, use again, we'll start with the popular two-worder Hi Bobby, hi, how's business?

Speaker 2 2:57

It's fine, thank you. Okay, right, how's business? Where do you?

Speaker 1 2:59

want me to start? Do you want me to talk about the coffee that's currently in the office or in the shop? Do you want me to start? Do you want me to talk about the coffee that's currently in the office or in the shop? Do you want?

Speaker 2 3:08

me to talk about.

Speaker 1 3:09

I mean honestly that's.

Speaker 2 3:11

That's a great example of calling a business. Let's imagine I'm ringing jeremy, who's a consumer now. So hello, is that jeremy? Yeah, hi, how are you today?

Speaker 1 3:22

where do I start? I've had an electrician in since the early morning. I've got a daughter being taken to an orthodontist as we speak. My son is now dog sitting for some people over the road because their dogs had an accident. My wife believes that we can do a load of diy ourselves. I'm sweating, and what is it you're trying to sell me?

Speaker 2 3:42

Sorry, and that's all true, I know it's all true, but I'm afraid, as a salesperson, that is not much use to me. Now, this is a fundamental thing we will say right now If you don't know somebody, don't ask them how they are, okay.

Speaker 1 3:59

Well, let's just do a straight ban on those two. Whether you're selling to a business, you can never say how's business it. There's a great ban on those too. Whether you're selling to a business, you can never say how's business. It's the most nonspecific. You can never ask someone how you are. Colleen Francis, a Canadian sales trainer, says how are you today. Announces you're a salesperson selling something they don't want.

Speaker 2 4:14

Exactly. Another one is, which I love, is have you got time to do this now? Can that work some business or consumer? Well, of course they haven't. The moment you ask me that question, I'm going to use anything I can think of to get out of doing this, because I've realized you want to sell me something. Have you got time for a short conversation? No, I'm really sorry I haven't, because I just realized I've got to. I'll make up something to get off the phone. Okay, just assume that they've got time until they tell you.

Speaker 1 4:42

Otherwise, do you know what we could do? Staying on the not what to say, we could jump right to the end of the proposal phase of the whatever you're selling to the individual. You're selling them a solution for their home or it doesn't matter garage door, something fundamentally dull or wonderful. Or you're selling a proposal to a business for a service or product. When you ring up, ringy ring, ringy ring, ringy ring, ringy ring, ringy ring, ringy ring. Hello, hello, oh hi. Is that you Bob? Yeah, oh hi, it's Jeremy. I said I'd call you back today. Oh yeah, I'm just wondering have you had a chance to consider the proposal?

Speaker 2 5:19

Oh no, I'm sorry. No, I haven't had a chance yet. We're going to sit down over the weekend and have a look at this, because we don't make any decisions unless we've actually got our feet off the ground. So we're going to sit down over the weekend, Haven't had a chance to look at this yet. Thank you for asking me that question.

Speaker 1 5:35

Well, look what I'll do is I'll make a note to call you on Monday.

Speaker 2 5:41

I would give it a week at least. You know we need to sit down, think about it, it's going to take a bit of time Friday. Why don't you just leave it with me and I'll come back to you?

Speaker 1 5:52

yeah, Should we do that, yeah, okay, sorry to have bothered you, and I really hope you have a lovely weekend, even though it's Wednesday.

Speaker 1 6:01

Okay well, that's fine. Yeah, we're not going to sit down till then, so that's fine, let's come up with some more. Not what to ask or not what to question, I think the other thing we'd say in our training sessions we have a series of questions that we call nods and nods. The reason that we work as nods is you go, I know the answer. You can nod and give the answer, so I'll go to bob right now. Bob, yeah, I take the name of your county please, east sussex. Yep, um, can I take your house number please, 17? Thank you, bob knows all of these answers. Now, what some people do is they don't ever leave nods, even when they're moving into the discovery stage. So, uh, do you like your patio?

Speaker 2 6:39

Yes.

Speaker 1 6:40

Right. Would you consider changing your patio? No, probably not. So I'm asking continual closed questions, even though I'm meant to be discovering. Without naming names, we should just say we once helped a law firm. In fact, it helps that it disbanded. They got us in to look at their matrimonial services. You came up with, by the way, the best ever strapline and they didn't take it. Do you remember that? Yes, you probably can't say that they handed us a sheet, that they asked prospective people ringing whether they're male, female husbands.

Speaker 2 7:17

Well, let's do it. Let's do it now, okay, so I'll be the receptionist, you'll be the the bloke. So ringy ring, ringy ring, hello you through to uh, bob morel.

Speaker 1 7:27

Family solicitors oh, hi, yeah, um, my marriage is broken down, um, and it it's not gonna last. Um, I just need some help and maybe meet one of your lawyers. I've heard your adverts as I've driven around.

Speaker 2 7:40

Not a problem at all. Not a problem at all. We do loads of them. What?

Speaker 1 7:42

I'm going to do. Well, it is a problem, but anyway.

Speaker 2 7:45

Well, look, you've come to the right place. The good news for you is that I handle all the onboarding of new potential. Yeah, we need to onboard you as a divorcee client for us. What I need to do is ask you just a short series of questions that are important before we can start the process. Now can I just take your?

Speaker 1 8:04

name please. So when you've done that, you then pair me with the right lawyer.

Speaker 2 8:08

Well, yes, what we need to do is onboard you in the right way. We allocate you to a lawyer, we get your first session booked in, but before I do that, I must get these answers to these questions.

Speaker 2 8:20

So your full name is Jeremy James Blake booked in, but before I do that, I must get these answers to these questions. So your full name is jeremy james blake. Jeremy james blake, okay, and do you own your own house? Well, yeah, but I guess. And do you want to keep that house, or do you think you'll be giving it to your?

Speaker 1 8:34

spouse. Well, probably, probably I'll move somewhere else.

Speaker 2 8:39

Okay, and do you have children? Three, yeah, Okay how old are they?

Speaker 1 8:44

2018 and 16.

Speaker 2 8:46

Okay, and is it your intention that they will continue to be with you or to be with their mother?

Speaker 1 8:57

Could I do this another time please?

Speaker 2 9:00

Well, I need answers to these questions or I can't onboard you.

Speaker 1 9:03

I'm afraid we haven't worked this out yet.

Speaker 2 9:05

Well, I know it's difficult, but we've got so many people calling us at the moment especially after the pandemic.

Speaker 1 9:11

Maybe you're too busy then, in that case, to help me, and I'm not sure I'm really finding an affinity with your style. Oh, I'm really surprised. I'm going to find someone else.

Speaker 2 9:20

Thank, yeah, now, listeners, you can tell what's wrong with that. Okay, what you're doing is peppering the poor sod with these questions before you can start, and that is a huge sound effect.

Speaker 1 9:35

This is what we did. We ripped up that piece of paper. I've been looking forward to do that trick for years. I used to do that with my children Rip up their artwork and they'd cry and I'd say, no, it's here, it's going on the fridge.

Speaker 2 9:49

Very good, let's give them what we actually gave them. Yes, okay, ringy ring, ringy ring. Hello, you're through to Bob Morrell's family solicitors Hi.

Speaker 1 9:57

Yeah, my marriage is over. I have got to face up to this and we need some help, whether it's one lawyer helping both of us or me with my own representation. Where do I start?

Speaker 2 10:08

well, I'm really sorry to hear you're in this position. That's always really sad. Thanks, I know this is a very difficult time for you. Can you just give me some idea of what would be the best outcome for you from this process?

Speaker 1 10:23

wow, okay, um, probably let all my children continue to live where they've lived. Okay, my wife will stay there and I will just get a small place somewhere down the road and we'll actually not worry about anything to do with the home, for well, they're thinking their ages for about another five years, okay, um, and as long as we can have have some kind of agreement of me supporting them and I can at least afford to stay on the ladder, that's about it.

Speaker 2 10:54

Okay, well, that sounds all perfectly achievable. What I need to do is take down a few of your contact details and then we'll book you in for your first conversation with one of our top lawyers Great which should take place in the next day or so.

Speaker 1 11:06

Oh good, the sooner the better.

Speaker 3 11:08

yeah, done, so we don't need to fill in your spreadsheet to upload your excel.

Speaker 1 11:14

So it's already looking at this.

Speaker 3 11:15

No, it's a relationship business this podcast has been created by reality training. We're a UK-based training and leadership brand who work across all sectors to improve businesses and their people. Our tagline is selling certainty, because that's what we do Give you more certainty in how you do things and give you certainty about how you sell things. Find out more at realitytrainingcom.

Speaker 1 11:54

Well, let's take this further. So Kipling wrote about the six honest serving men and it's still useful which are who, what, when, which, why, where? Thank you, which I'd say is the single most underused question.

Speaker 2 12:11

And we've done a podcast on that already. We have One thing that we would say is the question why should be used sparingly. Yes, very much so, because a why question is always emotional. If you say to a customer, well, why don't you want to buy it? You might get a very short, sharp answer as to the reason why. So I think, always change your whys to what what's happened. That's meant you're now no longer able to buy this. Then you're going to get a very different sort of answer.

Speaker 1 12:40

I think there's an inventory opportunity I mentioned earlier. Sorry that salespeople are stuck in the nod. Questions Do are have. If you just record yourself on a call or with a customer or whatever, you'll hear yourself. You're not asking enough, who, how, when, where, you're just not opening up. So as a result, you probably get shorter responses and that the free thinking that they're undertaking is less interesting.

Speaker 2 13:05

Questioning is all about control. Every time you ask a good question, you are controlling the conversation and, crucially, you're taking the pressure off yourself, because every time you ask a decent question, the customer has to answer that question. Think about it, answer and you're sitting there waiting for them to give you this gold that you're going to use later on, and the pressure is off you. Now. Some people like to ask one open question and then move on. It's not enough. You've got to spend much longer in this section asking questions. That gets the customer talking, and then it's much easier for you to go right. Here's the solution for you, for you to go right, here's the solution for you, and I think, if you take anything away from this podcast, please spend more time asking more questions and going deeper, which forges a better relationship well, let's talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 1 13:57

So we used to call it, which is completely out of date we used to call that wickering, named after alan wicker. So I'd say to bob give me just a short response to this, bob, and then I'll do some wickering. Okay, so let's imagine I'm selling you a holiday, so what's been the single best destination you've been to in in the last five?

Speaker 2 14:16

years? Oh, probably italy, italy. And what was it you loved about italy? Are the foods off the how exactly? Ah fantastic hams and delicious wine and brilliantly put together dishes. And it's different wherever you go, in Italy as well. So wherever you go, it's fabulous, but there's one thing above Italy which is so much better than anywhere else anywhere else?

Speaker 1 14:54

please tell me the lack of british people. Well, now you've told me that I think we're probably going to look at areas that you may or may not have been to. What do you know about pulia?

Speaker 2 14:59

oh, I mean, pulia is just heaven. Um, yeah, it's the sort of place where you know it's reasonable, but busy at the high of the season, I think because of the Italians will go to places like that as well, but of course, what that means is lots of Italians and fewer Brits.

Speaker 1 15:19

Well, let me ask another question what's one area of Italy that you've never been to that perhaps, if I could find a no brit gastronomic experience, it might be on your agenda, oh calabria that's the toe of italy, yeah that's the toe of italy, that goes down should we uh?

Speaker 2 15:38

yeah collaborate on that. Very good, very, if only. If only a travel agent would sell to me like this ah, be, such fun, wouldn't it it, oh, my God, I'd book anything. I really would.

Speaker 1 15:50

So I wanted to say one more thing. There I was wickering getting Bob to go deeper. How exactly? In what way Someone gives you an answer, whether you're in business to business or business to consumer. You just go. Good, they've answered my question. My manager wants me to complete this sheet. Find out this stuff. Remember, your manager might be an ex-engineer who doesn't understand about questioning, as might your company, so you have to take this upon yourself to develop your skills. The other thing police people do is they use an acronym called TED. Tell me more about that, Explain how that works, Describe what you saw. So if you're fed up of asking questions, you could just say tell me exactly how that works, Can you explain how that plays out each day, or can you describe what that would look like? Ted? That's quite a nice little acronym.

The Power of Effective Questioning

Speaker 2 16:36

The last thing I'll say about questioning skills is you need to practice. It's really important, but I think the other side of it is when you ask a really good question, that gets the customer talking. People talk about upsell and cross-sell. That's where it comes from. It doesn't come from the end of the conversation where you've sold something. You're trying to add something in at the last minute, which rarely works. When you're asking great questions early on in the conversation, that opens up opportunities and they might mention something. You go hmm, I might have something for that, but let's carry on and you're teeing up opportunities for later. So questioning isn't just about asking questions.

Speaker 1 17:16

it's about teeing up the value that you're going to get across later, which we will look at in a future podcast and, if you indulge me, I think the one thing you're ultimately leading up to is a decision, and it will enable them to make a decision if you know more about them. So that's why you're asking the questions. Don't think I've got to ask questions, because then I can hit them with my pitch If I understand them, and then I can relay this to them. They're able to make a decision in a much more easy way. And the final thing on the question is you know what's your decision?

Speaker 1 17:47

What would be the implication of you doing this? Well, it would transform our house, our garden, our flooring, our business, our factory. And what would happen if you didn't do this? Well, we'd stay here, we could lose people. The garden work looks so good, the factory would be a bit crap. So you're wanting to get people to rationalize over the decision. What happens by making the decision? What happens by not making the decision? That's quite a lot in a little episode on questioning, isn't it? That's probably enough.

Speaker 2 18:12

So just a little idea to take away from this In your teams, a great thing you can do is ask what are the great questions that open up the conversation, get people talking and get them sharing with you the gold that you need to show them how they can value what it is you're selling. That's a really good exercise to do, and, in fact, in your Monday morning meetings or your Friday briefings or whatever you do, these huddles come together and think right, what are the great questions that we can use? What's going to open up the conversation? And my one bit of advice is this the next question is how do you go deeper?

Speaker 2 18:53

Okay, you know, I like Italy, I like Puglia, I'd like to go to Calabria, I like this sort of food. If you put together a holiday that includes some of those elements for me that I've mentioned, I'm going to buy it. If you ignore that and try and sell me a week skiing in the Dolomites, I might be less interested. Okay so, and try and sell me a week skiing in the Dolomites I might be less interested. Okay, so you're looking for those really good bits of information to use.

Speaker 1 19:17

The relationship is not built by you lecturing. The relationship is built by you asking, getting them to do the talking. You've got two ears and one mouth. Use them in that ratio.

Speaker 2 19:29

And the good news is, when you ask a good question, the customer will answer it, but they'll also be thinking this person's pretty good. That's a really good question that is going to help you.