The One Sales Question You Probably Never Ask

What’s the one sales question you probably never ask, but should be asking yourself every day?

Let’s take a look at some of the day-to-day challenges and frustrations we face in sales. We want to offer you a different way of dealing with them.  Have you ever asked yourself any of the following questions?

–  How do I help my customers grow their business to solidify our relationship?

– How can I demonstrate that I’m here to help them with this?

– How do I generate a trusting relationship with customers?

– How can I encourage customers to say “yes” quicker?

If these sound familiar, you may be asking the wrong questions which will lead you down the wrong path.

At Natural Training, we use something called The Psychology of Sales – it introduces the concept of Story, State, Strategy.

In its condensed version, Story is what we tell ourselves in our internal dialogue. These stories help to create our State of mind, which, in turn, dictates the Strategies we develop to address issues and concerns.

So if we are asking ourselves the wrong questions – we are thinking about the wrong answers and maybe adopting the wrong strategy.

Our self-talk is all wrong.

So, what is the right question? The question we should be asking ourselves is:

“What am I doing or thinking that is getting in the way of success?”

This puts the focus squarely where it needs to be—on you! When you rephrase your question this way, you become much more aware of what you need to do to get the results you want. By accepting responsibility and ownership for your own success, the control is now in your hands.

Let’s look at some sample questions:

“How do I create a trusted business advisor relationship with my customers?”

What are some of the reasons why a customer would see you as just a salesperson rather than an advisor?

They could include:

– You’re focused only on the sale

– You aren’t bringing any new ideas to the table

All the while the question you should be asking is:

 “What am I doing or thinking that means my customers see us as merely another vendor instead of a trusted business advisor?”

This might lead you down a more productive path.  By bringing the ownership back to you, you might then start to ask questions like:

– “Have I developed a solution that addresses all of their needs?”

– “Have I demonstrated enough value for my solution?”

– “Have I given proof of the return on investment they could get with my product or service?” 

There is a focus shift with this strategy:

We’re moving away from thinking about what we should say and thinking more about what we should be.  Particularly if we are going to take an interest in our customer’s business, rather than simply trying to sell them something.

This strategy needs us to be honest with ourselves, and to recognise those bad habits we sometimes develop.

It’s easy to blame something else when things don’t turn out the way we want them to. It’s much harder to look in the mirror and do the work necessary to improve who we are, how we respond, and especially to take responsibility for our own learning.  This is the real secret behind great selling.

Let me leave you with one final idea.

Seek feedback from your colleagues, sales managers, friends and especially your customers to help you identify your blind spots and become more self-aware.

We all know that great sales are built on great questions.

Now it’s time to make sure you are asking yourself the right questions by bringing the focus back to you.  I’ll give you the big question one more time:  “What am I doing or thinking that is getting in the way of success?”

If you’d like to talk to us about results we can help you achieve with sales training, get in touch below, we’d love to hear from you.

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