267: Designing Qualifying Questions and Our Agenda Statement

THE Sales Japan Series by Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

This week we will look at improving our questioning skills and setting up the meeting agenda. There are a variety of qualifying questions we need to design before we meet with the client, be that meeting online or in person. What we don’t want is to be trying to work it out on the spur of the moment. It is always better to have a basic structure and then adjust to suit the situation, than trying to come up with brilliance on the fly. Yes, we have to be flexible and adaptable、 but planning is also an integral component in sales success. I am not a great fan of pre-cooked scripts, but I do like structures. We can set up the parameters and then fill in the details as we require, based on where the conversation is going and the needs of the moment. Let’s take a look at some of the questions we need to design and I will use our business as the model.

The Permission Question: If we are meeting the client for the first time, then we need to remind them that we have helped others in a similar business to theirs and we may be able to help them too, but in order to know that or not we need to ask them a few questions. This is a simple structure and easy to ask. Remember, we are going to be asking them everything about their secret company business, especially about their weaknesses, and we are a stranger to the client. Would you tell a stranger all the things that are going wrong with your marriage or your kids? No, yet we expect the client to open up about their failings in their firm. We have to get their agreement to share with us, otherwise we cannot help them.

The Need Questions: Harsh as it is to contemplate, we may not be a match for this client. We need to know that as quickly as possible, so that we are not wasting anyone’s time. We can ask, “What are some key issues for your business at the moment?”. If they are not forthcoming because the question is too broad, then we can try to dig down and spark some feedback. For example, we could say, “Many of our clients would like to see improved performances from their salespeople in this virtual environment. Is that the case for you or are you fully satisfied with the progress your sales team are making?”. Whatever they tell us, we should also ask about what other issues are a priority for them. The first answer may not be the main issue of highest importance to them, so we have to uncover the other key problems, before we know where to zero in with our information.

The Quantity Question: To get some sense of the scale of the issue we need to gather some basic data. For example, in our case we would ask, “How may salespeople do you have who could benefit from training for virtual selling?”. This tells me how big a solution they need, so I can adjust my presentation accordingly.

The Budget Question: We can get down to it and ask directly, “How much have you allocated for training the sales team?”. Sometimes however, when you ask about their budget they don’t want to share that information, because they are wary of nosy, pushy salespeople. When we ask a tangential question, such as the size of the sales team, we can gauge the approximate size of the solution and then work out roughly how much that will cost them.

The Authority Question: Today many people are involved in the buying decision. We should try and find out who are the other players with the strongest vested interest in the decision. We ask, “In order for me to help you, may I ask, apart from you, who would have the most interest and input into the buying decision?

The Agenda Statement: The Agenda Statement helps us to control the flow of the meeting with the client. We begin by reminding them of the need for this meeting and the benefit of meeting together. We then outline the items to discuss:

1. We start by asking them how familiar they are with our company. We do this because want to flush out any misinformation or misperceptions, so that we can address these immediately.
2. We mention that we would like to hear what they are currently doing and what systems they are using.
3. We note we would like to get some idea of their future goals and objectives.
4. We point out that we would like to learn what are some of the challenges preventing them from getting to their goals fast enough?
5. We mention that if there is a match, we can go through how we could work together.
6. Finally, we ask them if they have any items they would like to add to the agenda.

Once we have the agenda agreed, then we move to item number one on the agenda and then start working our way through our pre-determined questions. Do things go in order? Usually no, but that doesn’t matter, as long as we cover the key questions during the meeting. We won’t get so many opportunities to ask these questions, so we have to make every post a winner.