Every effective sales training course teaches sales professionals to ask open-ended questions.  These are the questions that start with who, what, why, when, how, etc.  Why are open ended questions so universally taught? Because:

• They solicit great information
• Get the person talking
• Allow you and them to find out if there is an opportunity
• Can show your expertise, IF you ask the right questions

All that sounds great, doesn’t it?  They really ARE effective.  But not 100% of the time.  Sometimes they can make a needs analysis seem like an interrogation.  Even though they are open they can be leading, forced, narrow, product focused and irrelevant.  Sales pros can come off like a robot reciting their list of questions so they can get to pitching their product! 

When we use the 3 ‘I’ approach, our open-ended questions include: 

1. Intent
2. Intelligence
3. Interest

Intent.  I’ve seen sales pros launch right into a list of questions that might seem irrelevant to the prospect.  The prospect thinks ‘What’s this have to do with anything?” Instead, we need to explain the intent of the line of questions so the prospect can put it in perspective and answer thoughtfully.

An example: Yesterday I received a call for someone who had something to offer.  They immediately asked me “So, what are you working on?”  My response?  “Wow, that’s broad, in what context?” They responded, “Whatever context you choose.”  Well, I was confused.  I knew what this person was selling and thought, should I answer my question based on that narrow interest or is he really trying to find out more?

So, I turned it back to him and said, ‘What are you working on?”  And then he responded. After 15 minutes I knew the flavor of his focus and we continued.

But why should I have had to work that hard?  If I knew where the discussion was going we could have both saved time.

To share intent can sound like this.  “We are going to talk about your human resource needs. What we have learned is that understanding  how this fits into the overall company’s goals and objectives helps us narrow down the approach and we will be able to give you a more accurate picture of how we might help.  The first questions are focused on that broader picture. Then we’ll get more specific.”  Then we go into our list of questions.

Intelligence.  Your questions reveal a LOT about you. Here’s how to raise your ‘perceived’ intelligence level:

• Explain the intent  of your line of questions and ask questions that broaden the dialogue to a bigger more strategic discussion. 
• Focus on the solution or value desired versus just the product.
• Wait to LISTEN once you have asked  a question. When you ask more intelligent questions, the person may need to think before responding (this is usually a good thing).  How long? According to research, they might need 15-25 seconds to think and respond.  That’s a long time to wait, but it can payoff.

Interest.  The questions should be ‘of interest’ to the person. How?  Make the questions relevant to the situation and person. When it’s about THEM, it’s interesting TO them. Every aspect of the sales process should be wiift focused – What’s in it for THEM? – and this includes your questions!

There you have the 3 necessary “I”s for making your needs analysis informative and not an interrogation. 

Of course I have learned many of these things the hard way.  With confused looks from prospects as I took a direction that surprised them. What have you learned about open ended questions?

What does it take to be successful in the sales world?  Intelligence, drive, a good work ethic, being customer and company focused, knowing ‘how’ to sell in your industry and so much more.  Yet all of this can be boiled down to two broader items:  confidence and competence.

In my sales training courses, we build competence and confidence.  When my prospects ask me which is more important – I’m stumped.  It’s both!  Being confident with competence is what is necessary.  Strengthening each of these lasts and gives a healthy ROI to the training!

Let’s look at the alternatives:    

• Confidence with incompetence:  You know these folks – lots of bravado and nothing to back it up.  They create a trail of destruction – inside and outside the company. Often these are what people label the dreaded ‘used car salesman’ type.
• Lack of confidence with incompetence:  Not much to say, hopefully they find another career quickly. The sad part?  Often they are the NICEST people – just miscast in sales.
• Lack of confidence with competence:  They know what to do and CAN do it – but their lack of confidence can rear its ugly head in so many unproductive ways – procrastination, lack of making contact with prospective buyers, and over preparing for everything.

A competent and confident sales professional knows WHAT to do, HOW to do it and does “it”.  They are consistent, productive and proactive.

It’s Friday – let’s have some fun with this one.  Please comment with examples of salespeople you have run into that fit into one of these groups. 

Looking for a new job?  The news out there is bleak these days as the Labor Department’s U-6 unemployment rate was 13.5% at the end of 2008.  That’s a lot of unemployed people!  On top of that, the newspaper is full of stories of companies who have or will soon downsize their workforce.  I wonder how equipped these unemployed people are to sell themselves for a new job.   With so many people are afraid of sales, what is scarier than selling yourself as you look for a new job?

Yet, some people ARE still getting hired – just last week I spoke with three people who just landed GREAT new jobs.  How did they do it?  They applied great sales skills to the job hunting contest.

Two sales secrets for job hunting:

1. Focus on What’s in it for Them!  Narrow the value you bring to a few specifics that help THIS company, this manager, this industry. Do not list or tell EVERYTHING you have ever done.  Make it relevant to them with information from the Internet on the company and possibly the contact. 

Translate your experiences and skills into a benefit to them!  Assume that whatever you state, the screener is thinking “So what?”  And answer the “so what” in your statements.  Examples:

• “I have developed marketing and graphics for my employer for 7 years.”  So what?  Try…  “I have developed marketing and graphics that allowed our sales force to close more sales.” 
• “My experience includes knoweldge of teh following software applications…..”  So what?   Try… “I hae worked with software applications such as _______ and that allowed me to increase efficiency by 15% and decrease the costs associated with getting the projects completed.”

2.  Make contacts every day!  Successful people do not let days go by without making connections.  I see job seekers take WEEKS to write and re-write their resume.  That is too long – most resume screeners only spend 30-60 seconds glancing at your resume.  Your resume will not get you a job, contacting potential hiring managers will.  But what do you say? Prepare a very short statement of what you can help them do.  And then ask for an appointment to discuss their company and a potential fit.

      “Mr. Manager, I am Nancy Bleeke, a sales professional who has improved sales processes resulting in 12% sales increases the last three years.  I am in the job market and may be able to increase sales for your company.   Can we meet to discuss openings in sales with your company and how I might use my expertise to  increase sales for you?” 

Want to get hired?  Do your homework to prepare a great contact and interview that differentiate yourself from the other seekers.  These two sales secrets will help you win that job!

Want to increase your sales performance for the long-term?  Focus on fundamentals today.

Michael Jordan, undeniably a long-term example for sports performance, said that “You have to monitor your fundamentals constantly because the only thing that changes will be your attention to them.  The fundamentals will never change.”  

It’s the same in our professional business careers, if we want to increase our sales productivity, we need to give attention to the fundamentals of great communication, preparation and follow-up.  These are timeless, universal fundamentals.

As Michael said “Fundamentals were the most crucial part of my game in the NBA.  Everything I did, everything I achieved, can be traced back to the way I approached the fundamentals and how I applied them to my abilities.”

Today is Monday, the beginning of a new work week.  What selling fundamental can you work on today to set yourself up for “A” game success the rest of the week?  Got that action in mind?  Now just “Do It”!

Maximizing productivity is a key objective for sales people and sales managers. Time and money is spent on CRMs, planners, Blackberries, and more technology. And, when used appropriately, technology can help us with efficiency. Yet there is more…we also need to squeeze the most out of every contact and discussion we have. We need to continuously advance the sale WITH each prospect.

An effective sales discussion starts before contact. It starts with preparation that includes identifying:

• Who, what, why and when for this contact.
• Potential objections that may be raised.
• The decision needed at the end of the contact. Some sales are closed in one discussion, many are not, and the decision might be to schedule a next meeting, introduce you to someone else in the company, provide you information or specs, etc. We need to know what our decision at the “close” of this discussions should be.

After preparation we can maximize the actual discussion with the person by using the acronym WIIFT for specific steps and a road map. WIIFT is a 5 step sales process AND a philosophy of focusing on What’s in it for Them through the discussion.

Wait. Pause and mentally prepare before contact. Review the notes you made, think about this person and company and the value you can possibly provide them. And then…

Initiate the contact. Help the person break pre-occupation by asking them open ended questions that draw them into conversation. Connect with the person before jumping directly into your product information or your business questions. Put the spotlight on them by asking about their job, their history with the company, their interests (look for clues on this one). This step might take 2 minutes or 20, pay attention to time and move the discussion to business when appropriate.

• Tell me how you ended up in this role…
• How is your day going?

And then move the discussion into business…

Investigate. Use additional open-ended questions to allow them to discuss and clarify:

• What their objectives are
• What is happening now
• What are the risks of doing nothing
• What are the rewards of taking action

The gaps between these areas is your opportunity. Use great listening skills by summarizing what you hear, taking notes, and helping them clarify their responses. Once gaps are identified and clarified, you can move to explaining how you can help them.

Facilitate a discussion where you use your expertise to educate them on how what you do/have can eliminate the gaps discovered in your investigation. The more closely you match what you do to THEM, their situation, their needs and opportuntiies, the higher the perceived value (and the less they want to wait to get what you have).
Use YOU transition statements from WHAT you have to the WIIFT (what’s in it for them).

• Our service provides ongoing technical support and in YOUR situation that means that YOU will not have 2 a.m. phone calls from your users.
• We have 20 years of experience which means that YOU will be able to use proven processes that help YOU reach your goals quicker.

To facilitate means to “make it easy” for someone else. As you share your information make it easy for them to see how what you have fits with them…involve them, let them be a part of discovering how this fits with their situation, the value they see, make it a discussion versus a “pitch”.

Collaborate. Beyond consultative selling – collaborative selling is working with someone else to accomplish something. Ask what type of objections or obstacles they foresee in moving forward. Then work through the objections WITH them as a problem solver. Finally, ask for a decision and the next step to close the discussion (and the sale).

Following a sales system brings efficiency and consistency to each discussion. It allows us to keep moving the process forward and using “face” time most productively. Then we can use our technology to capture the order, schedule the next appointment and report to our managers. Productivity will increase as we maximize every discussion.

What do you do to maximize your sales discussions?

As I’ve been writing about all week, the Sales SheBang conference gathered successful sales pros – women AND some men – for sharing and learning sales skills. During the week, there was a particularly energetic and engaged member -Matt Donnelly.

Matt is 84 years and old lives in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. For two years, Matt has been the first to enroll in this conference. I heard about Matt in the Sales Expert Summit sessions the day before the actual conference. And thought “he’s just there to be with the women”. Was I wrong!

Matt has the energy and smarts of people half his age. With his blue blazer and a coordinating beret, his trademark, Matt was a willing participant for 2 days. I couldn’t resist talking with him to find out “is he really still selling”? Well, indeed he is! He started his business appraisal business 21 years ago and is still selling himself today.

He told me that he can always improve and he still has a lot to learn. His goal is to stay with it until he is 103 and a half years. But that is not the shocker, at the end of the conference, Matt wanted to address the 100+ attendees. He produced his check for next year’s conference to guarantee that he is again the first enrolled.

Lessons observed from Matt…no matter how long we have been doing something, we have more to learn. And when work is fun, who needs to retire?

What are some of the lessons you have learned from those that have been “at it” longer then you?