{"id":1484,"date":"2011-12-09T13:59:50","date_gmt":"2011-12-09T13:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theweekinimaging.com\/?p=1484"},"modified":"2011-12-09T13:59:50","modified_gmt":"2011-12-09T13:59:50","slug":"sales-pitch-questionable-behavior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/the-week-in-imaging-twii\/sales-and-service\/2011\/12\/sales-pitch-questionable-behavior\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales Pitch: Questionable Behavior"},"content":{"rendered":"
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David Ramos<\/p><\/div>\n

Who was it that had that saying about life being about just showing up? Oh yeah, Woody Allen.\u00a0 Well, I want to put a qualifier on good old Woody\u2019s saying. He wasn\u2019t referring to sales calls and sales executives who show up without a plan on what questions to ask a prospect or customer and without the ability to pay attention and listen.<\/p>\n

I understand that it\u2019s easy for prospective clients to get so caught up in life\u2019s day-to-day obligations that they miss the big picture, pushing aside major ongoing problems for the moment.\u00a0 But moments become hours, hours become days, days become years\u2026and the customer\u2019s problems remain unsolved, buried in the quicksand of daily minutiae, smothering their business.<\/p>\n

Good questions highlight your prospect or customers problems, creating a sense of urgency that hauls them out of that quicksand, forcing them to step back and take a long, hard look at that big picture. Do you understand their needs?\u00a0 Most likely the answer is yes, and you might be right\u2026to a point. You ask questions and listen to answers in order to understand what your customers are trying to achieve.\u00a0 But as the expression goes, \u201cthere is understanding and then there is understanding.\u201d\u00a0 Questioning and listening open the way to understanding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for most traditional salespeople they think of themselves in the role of the answer man, therefore, it is easy for them to fall into a mode of telling, not questioning and listening.\u00a0 Salespeople are also action-oriented and listening can seem too time-consuming and passive.\u00a0 Additionally, there is a concern among salespeople that if they ask questions they could lose control of the dialogue or find themselves in areas they are not prepared to discuss or don\u2019t want to pursue. Below is a generic,\u00a0consultative sales question outline\u00a0to get you started building your own great list of questions.<\/p>\n