Qualifying questions
Is the prospect a good candidate for your solution? Should you push the lead further down the funnel or put it on hold for the moment?
Ask these questions to find out:
- What do you think our next steps should be?
- What is your expected timeline for implementing this solution?
- What else should we know before going forward?
- Have you established a budget for this?
- What do you think about [x] so far?
- Is there anyone else involved with this decision? Who?
- What would have to happen for this to no longer be a top priority?
- How have things changed since our last conversation?
- What are your top concerns?
- How do you define “success” when you’re buying?
- If you had to, what would you emphasize regarding price, quality, and service?
- What service level are you willing and comfortable paying for?
Closing questions
The most important part of the sales process – closing. Ask these questions when you’re trying to win a deal:
- Where and how did you hear about us?
- What are your top must-haves, should-haves, and could-haves with this solution?
- What does your decision-making process look like?
- Who are the top stakeholders for this deal to go through?
- Who else (vendor) are you comparing us against?
- What’s your timeline for making a purchase decision?
- What other products/solutions are you currently using that our product has to integrate with?
- What kind of service or support do you think will help you become successful?
- What could impact the success of this deal? What might prevent it from happening?
- What caused you to reach out to us?
- What will it take for us to do business together?
- When can we begin?
Conclusion
How well you know your prospects will have a big impact on the success of your sales process. And to know your prospects better, you have to ask them probing sales questions.
In sales, these are called “open-ended questions”. Such questions are designed to get a prospect to talk more about his business and his problems.
Asking the right questions at the right time can build rapport, increase trustworthiness and reduce resistance. You’ll also learn much more about your prospects which can help you create better solutions.
Start by using some of the questions shared above in your sales process. Gauge the response and fine-tune accordingly.