Sales Training Tip #07; Ask Questions of the Prospect

If you are a sales training professional you need to make sure your salespeople understand that it is important to ask questions of the Prospect during cold calling and during sales interviews. The best way to do this is to have the salesman ask very good questions of the Prospect about important things in their business and their operations.

This does a couple of things; one, it opens dialogue and keeps the Prospect talking and developing rapport with the salesman. Two, it helps the salesperson learn more about how the company does business, how the Prospect wishes to communicate and helps the salesperson due to the major objections that may or may not be introduced during the sales process or cold call if the sales interview goes that far.

Sales managers need to watch their sales force and make sure that the salespeople are not getting all of their cold calls cut short by prospects who want to dump the call because the salesperson failed to engage the Prospect in proper dialogue.

For new salespeople the sales training professional may decide to put a 3 by 5 index card in front of the salesperson with a list of possible questions they can ask the Prospect on until which time they become less nervous in opening dialogue and communication in normal conversation, as eventually it becomes more natural. Please consider all this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

Sales Training Tip #11; Prospect Interest and Sales Process
It is important for teach each and every sales trainer and sales training manager of any company with a large sales force to make sure that each and every salesperson that is on the team so they can recognize when a prospect is interested in what it ...

Sales Training Starts with Fundamentals
Many in sales training are of the opinion and I am too; that good sales training starts with the fundamentals. Such as verifying that the prospect is truly interested, understands what your product or service can do and is qualified and able to buy t...

Stop Throwing Cans!
Two months ago, I had the pleasure of working with the technical training group for one of my clients. You know these guys. They are the techies who teach your customers how to use the software and operate the equipment we sell. They often come along...

Bike Shop Sales Training
Most bike shop sales people are there because they love bicycles and this indeed helps them answer all the questions that a rider might have and yet this is not the only thing that a bicycle shop sales person needs. You see, they also need good sales...

5 Easy Steps to Closing the Sale: Step II
Step II: Asking the Right QuestionsIts been my experience that all prospects want to talkyou just need the right questions to ask them. Thats where many new sales people face a big hurdle. How do I ask the best questions to develop some needs for ...

Managing a Customer with Unrealistic Expectations
Earlier this year we looked at some techniques for dealing with objections (Objection Handling Technique 2007-04-20 ) As part of that article I mentioned that unrealistic expectations on behalf of the prospect can sometimes be misunderstood and treat...

The Sales Qualification Process Making It Work For You
If youve been alive during the last 10 years then the chances are that youve been pitched by a sales person numerous times. You probably knew what was going on and that you were being sold to. Some were probably better than others but Im betting that...

Closing and the Circle of Fear
We always try to talk to or interview individual sales people before we deliver in house sales training. As part of this discussion the salesperson is asked about the areas of their selling that they feel they need help with. At this stage we must ha...

Sales Training at Car Dealerships Is the Key
For those who run the sales departments at automotive car dealerships they know that the more money they spend in training their sales force the more sales the dealership will accrue. Most sales training includes positive feedback and motivational sp...

Fatal Sales Mistake Number 2- Stop Winging It!
Fatal sales mistake no. 2 in our series of 25 is Stop Winging It!When presenting to a prospect, how many times have you not really known much about his business or not really known what youre going to say or what road youre going to take the prospect...

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 1:12 pm and is filed under Sales Training . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.