Et? / Et alors?

The simplest question and hardest question

I'm often asked what kind of question to ask prospects to understand them properly. Too often there's a focus from sales people on qualifying their prospects on the technical side of their business. They rarely try to understand the perspective of the person they are talking to, what he or she has to gain or loose, their personal challenges, why they care, etc...

In a nutshell, selling is a process that focuses on the other person, not on us or our product.

So there are loads of questions to ask but during a conversation, a very useful question to understand the other person in greater depth and going beyond the superficial is a word made of two letters.

And?

As you undoubtedly know, the only reason people buy something is when they have a problem (a challenge identified today or one they see coming tomorrow) or when they want to go towards pleasure. Simply put, in B2B companies help their customers get away from a problem. In the B2C sector, companies help their customers to enjoy themselves. For example, when they want to go to the cinema, to a restaurant or on holiday.

In short, dear reader, you know all this. And I assume that your approach when talking to prospects are based solely on the problems you solve, not the benefits you bring. However, when we talk to a prospect and hear them explain one of the challenge they face, the risk is to get excited (yes! they have a problem and I can solve it, got one!). And to start explaining how we can help them. A mistake not to make.

I beg your pardon?

Yes. I don't know about you but I have a very very long list of problems (too long, in fact). I can only concentrate on one or two of them at a time. And so I have to live with the others until I have the time, the money and the will to solve them. These three conditions are necessary because, for example, if I have the money to solve it but other more important problems, I'm not going to dwell on them.

Well, it's the same thing for prospects. Just because they tell us about a problem doesn't mean it's a priority for them. Or that they're at the stage of looking for an external solution.

So our aim is to understand the prospect and find out whether the problem they're expressing is something that's really important to them. Take our time, or as the British say: "You have to slow down to speed up:

You have to slow down to speed up

If you rush into explaining your solution, you lose the opportunity to fully understand your prospect, to develop the relationship and you run the risk of positioning yourself not as a trusted advisor but as an enthusiastic salesperson who wants to sell.

So how do you go about it?

Good question, dear reader, thank you for asking.

There's one thing we often, very often, forget to try and understand. And yet it is crucial. Well, there are a lot of things we forget to understand, but let's focus on one point: the impact of this problem on our prospect and their organisation.

If there is only a superficial impact, both human and financial, there is very little chance that the prospect will take action to change things. Because, often, they will have to convince other people in their organisation, find a budget, etc... There's no chance of that happening if there's no impact.

Once again, I don't really like sales 'techniques'. Used badly, they are counter-productive. That said, one of the simplest approaches is to ask this simple question: "And" or "So what?".

Beware the tone!

I'm simplifying. On purpose. There are lots of other questions, but when used properly, the simple question "And?" is a good start to understanding how this problem impacts our prospect, inviting them to elaborate beyond what they've just said.

But be careful. Tonality does matter. Such a short question is difficult to use and must be handled with care. A cold "And?" can be taken the wrong way, especially if your DISC style is more D and the other person is more S or I. To avoid offending our prospects, it is therefore important to use the different types of communication (verbal, auditory and kinaesthetic). A "So what?" delivered with a curious tone (auditory communication) and, for example, a little frown (kinaesthetic communication), will always be well received.

So what do you do to better understand your prospects?