Best Sales Questions that Work

You may love watching police dramas on TV, but a good salesperson never recreates the interrogation room in a prospect’s office.

The foundation of a good sales questioning strategy is creating a well-paced dialogue based on asking open-ended questions.

Here is a list of questions that I typically draw on in developing my pre-call strategy. They can be easily honed for specific situations and are intended to draw the other person into a meaningful conversation.

What is the opportunity?

• What is the initiative we’re here to talk about today?
• Why is now the right time for this initiative?
• What is the driving force behind this initiative?

What are the expectations?

• How will you recognize or define success?
• What changes do you want to see in your organization?
• What do you want your people to be doing differently
• How do you see this working within your organization?
• What are the roadblocks?
• Are there any champions or other stakeholders with an interest in this initiative?

What are the circumstances?

• How have you been addressing this issue?
• What is your time frame for getting started?
• What does your decision-making process look like, and who will be involved?
• What are next steps and your time frames for implementation?
• When can we schedule time for a presentation to all of the decision makers?

Who else is in the running?

• Who else are you considering as a partner for this initiative?
• What criteria will you use in making this decision?
• What have I not addressed that you’ve heard about and are intrigued by from other potential partners?

What else might you ask?

• Have you thought about this aspect? It’s something that we’ve helped other clients address with XYZ.
• What sensitivities do I need to be aware of?
• What have I not asked that I need to know?

Whichever questions you ask, keep these tips in mind during any sales questioning:

• Avoid yes-or-no or multiple-choice questions.
• Avoid asking multiple questions at once. Pose one question at a time, and wait for the answer.
• Listen closely to the prospect’s answer and, when appropriate, let it set the direction of follow-up questions.
• Never answer your own question; let the prospect speak instead.
• Never formulate your next question while the prospect is answering the previous one. Keep your attention on the prospect’s answers. Good listening goes hand-in-hand with good questioning.

Questioning is one of Richardson Sales Performance’s Six Critical Skills for sales.

1. Presence: Ability to project confidence, conviction and interest in body language and voice
2. Relating: Ability to use acknowledgement, rapport and empathy to connect
3. Questioning: Ability to explore needs and create dialogue
4. Listening: Ability to understand content and emotional message
5. Positioning: Ability to leverage client needs to be persuasive
6. Checking: Ability to elicit feedback

These are the skills that allow salespeople to create a meaningful dialogue; establish themselves as trusted advisers; understand client needs, priorities and perspectives; and close profitable business. Each skill builds on and supports the others — and, at the heart is the ability to ask the right questions to move your sales opportunities forward.