When they’re focused on saving money (as they often are), it will be difficult for you to hit your sales targets, according to Paul Cherry. You need to help them shift their focus to making money (which is why they’re in business!) — so then they’ll see why your product or service is such a necessary solution.

How do you do that? It starts with asking challenging and energizing questions, and Paul has 10 of them for you:

Top 10 Sales Questions to Ask Your Customers
by Paul Cherry

1. Tell me, what would you like to accomplish this year compared to last year?
   It’s a simple question designed to take your customer’s pulse and determine if he has a fresh perspective. Is he motivated, open-minded and receptive to change?
2. What do you envision, 3 years from now, as the specific goals you want to accomplish?
   This question taps into your customer’s big-picture mindset. How is he planning ahead? Is he thinking strategically? If he isn’t, are you really talking to the key decision-maker?
3. What actions will you pursue?
   Everyone talks about what they WANT to do — you need to discover what he’s WILLING to do. Is he a do-er, or just blowing smoke. Does he have a timeframe? Does he know how he’ll leverage existing resources, which activities and initiatives is he planning to launch?
4. What strengths do you want to capitalize on to ensure your success?
   This feel-good question strokes your customer’s ego and lets him toot his own horn about what makes him and his organization successful. At the same time, this question gets him thinking about what he needs to do to capitalize on his success and reach the next level, and how you can plant the seeds to get him there.
5. Can you tell me about the challenges you want to avoid so you can go after these opportunities?
   What are your client’s fears, anxieties, and frustrations? What business-related pain is he trying to address and/or overcome?
6. How are you going to differentiate and set yourself apart from other competitors clamoring for the same opportunities?
   Key decision-makers love talking about how they’re going to outsmart and outpace the competition. This kind of question appeals to their competitive drive and lets you know whether they’re as committed as they say they are.
7. What concerns do you have if you don’t achieve your goals for this year?
   This is the “implication question.” It’ll help you tap into your customer’s emotions and understand his sense of urgency. What’s his true level of commitment?  How motivated is he? What risks are involved if he’s not fully committed to change?
8. In what ways can we collaborate with you to make sure you achieve your goals?
   This is the first time you enter the picture. Many times, salespeople ask customers, “How can I help?” These salespeople need to understand, it’s NOT about them — it’s about their customer! You need to demonstrate to your customer how YOU fit into his big picture. Does he see you and your organization as part of the solution? — will you lead him where he wants to go? — will you create a true partnership?
9. What are some things you’d like to do less and/or more of to ensure your success?
   Here, you want to know how your customer wants to make his life easier, and what you can do to help him. What does he want to take off his desk? What opportunities can he pass along to you to make you part of his value-added solution?
10. What will it take on my part to win that portion of the business you’re currently giving to our competition?
    If you are a great salesperson, you’re never satisfied. You’re always hungry for more opportunities — and by having a good relationship in place, you’re asking for more of their business.

Want more help from Paul Cherry? Bring him to your next sales meeting!

A good friend of mine and the top sales person for one of the largest A+ mutual insurance companies in America is a very uncommon man. Not only does Scott provide exceptional service and a listening ear, but he also continually gives to his clients. He gives everything from note pads and pens to Harley Davidson Stereos. Every client who buys an insurance product gets flowers immediately. Not only is it his nature to give, but I bet it is hard for another agent to come in and undercut him when they have to peer over the vase of flowers on the counter. When he hears of any client or family of his client being sick, he sends more flowers. He even trusts them to use his condos on the beach. He doesn’t use them as a write-off, and he doesn’t charge the client. Don’t think Scott just became generous once he was successful. Before he had a beachside getaway, he had a heart for service and generosity. He shared one of his mantras with me, “Small deeds are far better than great intentions.” Scott considers his role to be a professional servant. He says, “When you serve others and care about them, it all comes back to you.” Why does this work? He thinks beyond himself in the most genuine way, treating his clients like friends. As a result, many of them have become friends.

Of course people can show compassion for selfish reasons such as recognition or greed. People can “look” concerned when they are not, just like in Academy Award-winning Slumdog Millionaire. Two hungry orphan boys, Salim and Jamal, were living in a garbage heap when they were found by Maman, who seemed like a savior at the time. Maman fed the boys and took them to his orphanage with a playground. The boys soon learned that Maman only showed concern in order to own them and teach them how to be beggars on his behalf. But what happened to Maman? He got rich but was angry, stressed, and ultimately murdered by those who he had taken advantage of. The most powerful compassion is sincere.

To learn more about trust and how Dave can help your sales force, click here.

Whether we’re talking about technology change (a new CRM platform?), strategic change (from transactional to consultative), compensation structure change (aargh!), Dave Horsager has created a 10-step process for instituting lasting change:

1. Build trust.
2. Create a unified spearhead team.
3. Establish a pressing need for the change to be implemented.
4. Formulate a clear, unifying vision.
5. Build and implement a specific doable strategy.
6. Share vision often.
7. Enable and equip all shareholders to implement change effort as top priority.
8. Create and recognize improvement, big and small.
9. Deepen change, making sure all systems, policies, and training promotes the change.
10. Create systems to open communication, listening, reviewing, and adjusting.

Rarely do people like change (we’re creatures of habit, after all), but we’re often surprised to find that we like the outcome that results from change. Don’t delay any longer in making the changes that are critical to your organization’s success.

If you need some help, Dave is standing by.

Many of the people you’re calling on today suffer from a severe case of Frazzled Customer Syndrome. This debilitating condition is brought on by excessive workloads, 24/7 availability, information overload, lack of sleep, and job-related stress.

You likely encounter these individuals on a daily basis. They’re good people who are doing their best to survive in a crazy-busy workplace.

Their calendars are overflowing and they’re constantly falling behind, but they feel powerless to stop the unrelenting, escalating demands on their time.

Their frantic pace is both exhausting and exhilarating. They can barely focus on important tasks because their days are filled with interruptions, distractions, and constantly changing activities.

One minute they’re working on a document. The next, they’re checking e-mail, text-messaging, responding to a customer, or doing research online. This frenetic multitasking fools them into thinking they’re accomplishing a lot, but in reality they’re doing very little.

The result?

More work, unmet obligations, unfinished projects and chronic feelings of underachievement.

To make matters worse, they don’t see an end in sight. Instead, they deal with constant downsizings and reorganizations and rapidly move from job to job, never really mastering their current one-all the while wondering if they’re next on the chopping block.

Their personal life is just as frenetic, as they juggle work commitments, family, and personal time until they crash in front of the TV every evening. It’s no wonder they don’t have time for you.

Recognizing the Symptoms

How do you know when you’re dealing with customers who suffer from Frazzled Customer Syndrome? Typically they:

• Have a “net it out” mentality. These impatient, time-starved people want you to get to the bottom line right away. If you don’t, they’re immediately dismissive.
• Get easily distracted. Even when they’re interested in what you have to say, their attention spans are short. They feel compelled to multitask whenever humanly possible.
• Forget quickly. Because of their excessive flitting from task to task, much of what they commit to never makes it into their long-term memory.
• Demand a lot. They expect you to jump through hoops to fulfill their requests, yet when it’s time for them to take action, they move like molasses.
• Suffer from “analysis paralysis.” Faced with lots of change, multiple acceptable options, and the lack of time for thorough research, they appear overwhelmed, and nothing makes sense to them.
• Withdraw from contact. When they’re buried under other priorities, they don’t have any news to report or they have bad news-or go silent altogether.

Frazzled Customer Syndrome makes your job so much harder. Dealing with overwhelmed people is completely different from working with calm, rational people who have time to analyze their situation and study multiple options before moving ahead. But those people are no longer the norm.

To make matters worse, traditional sales strategies actually create insurmountable obstacles that can derail your sales efforts.

Your hot prospects fizzle or flame out. They politely (or sometimes not so politely) tell you that their priorities have changed, the budget has dried up or they have too much on their plate right now.

In most cases, your attempts to get them back on track are futile. They tell you to call back next month, but before long that becomes “next quarter,” and then, “next year.”

They just want to get rid of you. It’s not personal. They just can’t handle even one more item on their to-do list. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

By mastering the SNAP Rules, you can change how your prospects react to you. Remember to:

1. Keep it Simple
2. Be iNvaluable
3. Always Align
4. Raise Priorities

When you do that, frazzled prospects will want to work with you. And, they’ll rely on your guidance and advice when they make decisions.

—

Need a speaker for your next sales meeting? Working with today’s crazy-busy prospects presents a whole new set of sales challenges, and new strategies are needed. Jill Konrath’s highly interactive, content-packed sessions focus on helping sellers crack into new accounts, speed up sales cycles and win big contracts. Contact us today to check availability and learn more about how Jill can help you and your team achieve your sales objectives.

If you’d like to hear my entire 37-minute conversation with Sam, sign in below for free access:

• Sam will teach you specific skills designed to allow your sales team to determine what they should be doing on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to achieve their goals
• You will learn transferable techniques that will help you and your team gain new focus and grow your results
• Sam will share his groundbreaking concept, “Managing Your Space” which will allow you to develop and deploy creative high-yield activities

This totally FREE 45-minute session happens Wednesday, October 27, at 11am Central (12pm Eastern / 9am Pacific). If you’d like to take advantage of this special opportunity to learn how to drive the success of your sales team through proactive accountability, all you have to do is…

Click to REGISTER NOW!

How good are you at customer accountability? That’s right. Customer accountability. That’s the accountability that we have as business professionals to the clients and customers that we serve. I believe we can apply our accountability in four areas.

The first is that we are accountable for our organization to give a great experience. The customer experience should be exceptional. It should be innovative. It should be new. It should have ways that the customer can engage you that are different from engaging the competition because ultimately, clients come back because they’re satisfied with the experience they had. The relationship is part of the experience, but also what went into that transaction? What were the steps? Was it easy to do business with you? Was it fun to engage you in business?

The second area of accountability that we have to our clients is that we’re accountable to give them the opportunity to give us immediate feedback after the sale. In other words, we need to put them in a position where they can tell us what that experience was about because that gives us the information we need to improve. It also allows them to share their opinion and shows that we really appreciate how they feel about the relationship.

The third accountability is that we are accountable to follow up with the customers down the line to make sure that they are still as happy with the product or service as they were when they initially engaged us. This builds for long term relationships.

And that leads to the fourth accountability.  We are accountable to follow up with the clients to re-engage them, to offer them additional products and/or services that will help fit their needs and solve some of their problems. That’s building a long term relationship where both parties are involved and both parties are benefiting.

Being accountable to our customers in these four areas will not only benefit them but it will help us grow our organization.

Want to learn more from Sam Silverstein? Schedule him to speak at your next sales meeting or conference – we can help! Just call us at 615-526-6600 or email us here.

In it, Sam addresses:

• Accountable Business Growth Through A Strategic Plan
• Seven Steps To Being Accountable For Your Wealth And Happiness
• Be Accountable For Your Goals
• Be Accountable For Excellence
• Be Accountable For Your Continuing Education

Just sign in below and you’ll have the white paper in your inbox in moments!

Just sign in below for instant access and you’ll learn:

• How to get your salespeople engaged
• What motivation is really all about
• Why customers commoditize their decisions… and what this means to your negotiations
• How to overcome “negotiaphobia”
• Why compromise is not a form of negotiation
• How to utilize the negotiation matrix to guide your negotiations
• Why collaboration rules today
• And more!

Join us for a SixOnSelling-exclusive teleseminar webinar with Don Hutson on Monday, September 27, 2010 at 3pm Eastern / 2pm Central / 12pm Pacific and pick up some quick tips to help you confidently and consistently guide any negotiation to the best possible conclusion. In this fast-paced (and free) session, Don will share insights based on his newest book, The One Minute Negotiator (#5 on the New York Times Bestseller list this week — and rising!), followed by a time of Q&A with you and the other attendees.

In today’s competitive market, EVERYBODY can profit from learning better negotiation skills.

Register Now!