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I’ve been noticing lately how many empty and overused sales words we use and I thought it was time I pointed out some in my sales blog. As sales professionals our most important tool is our words. That sales tip was given to me years ago and it has proven to be very true. I’ve put together a list of sales chatter that gets in the way of our sales skills and annoys customers or at best doesn’t even register with them. Customers appreciate when we use clear, sincere, non-jargon language with them.

1. “This is a win-win for everyone.” [Contrary to a lot of popular sales advice, customers don't really care that much about whether we win; they care that they win. I much prefer something like, "This solution is going to work well for you."]
2. “What would I have to do to get your business?” [This is really rookie sounding. My eyes hurt just reading it. Either the salesperson is not listening and/or not asking the right questions.]
3. “I’m just touching base with you.” [Why can't we be honest about why we're calling? It's a basic of how to sell. "I'm calling to see if that contract has been signed."]
4. “We are the biggest, best, oldest, best trained…” [I've observed that customers don't really appreciate all our verbal magnification about how wonderful our employer is. They want to know what we can do for them. Did you know this is the best sales tips sales blog in North America? See what I mean? Big turn off.]
5. “Please don’t hesitate to call me.” [How dated does that sound? If our prospects or customers need permission to contact us, we need serious sales help. We're going to need more than a few sales tips to fix this one.]
6. “I guarantee that…” [As salespeople we can't personally guarantee anything. This always sounds a little desperate to me.]
7. “Trust me.” [This has exactly the opposite meaning to every person in the known universe. Customers want sales help, not empty confusing statements.]
8. “To be honest…” [Now everyone is confused. Either you're now being honest and you weren't before or you always were and you're just reminding us.]

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It’s been 20 years since Neil Rackham published his 1988 book, SPIN Selling. For those of you who are too young to remember when this book was a business best seller, I can tell you that it turned a lot of traditional sales training concepts upside down. To a great extent it set in motion some major changes in how we currently view the customer/salesperson interaction.

1950’s style sales training wasn’t very pretty, nor was it very effective. Neil started a trend with his book that made us challenge those outdated views of the sales process. He also made us look more objectively at how sales professionals are trained and how we interact with prospects and customers.

Let’s review what made this book so noteworthy in relation to sales skills and concepts.

1. The author took time to research his material. Prior to the writing of this book (and even today) much of what passed for sales training was just the writer’s personal experiences and biases. Neil used a scientifically crafted approach to prove his points. This is a trend that fortunately is becoming more prominent in sales training today.
2. Neil broke the sales process down into four basic steps which you’ll find in most current sales training. Prior to his book these steps were not so clearly defined and understood.
3. He introduced ideas that were probably thought to be sinful to even consider in sales training circles 20 years ago. Things like: first impressions are greatly overrated, using scripts is a great way to destroy the sales process, questions are everything when it comes to selling, etc.

While I certainly don’t agree with all of the content in SPIN Selling, I have to applaud the author for researching his subject so well and not being afraid to be a contrarian. We need more Neil Rackhams in sales training.

While we don’t talk as much about this book today, many of its concepts have been integrated into current sales training. We shouldn’t forget the powerful contributions that were made by this book.

Should you read this book? It would be most helpful to those that are involved in consultative sales versus transactional sales, but I would encourage it as a classic sales training must-read, regardless of what type of sales environment you work in.

If you’re not already a subscriber, <click here> to receive Sales Vitamins™ by email or <click here> to subscribe to the RSS feed. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

When we are prospecting by phone, one of the most common dismissals we hear is for the prospect to say, “I’m familiar with what you do and we don’t need any of that product/service now.”

We’re left with the feeling that they actually probably don’t have the slightest idea what we’re selling. Frequently we’ll respond to this dismissal by forcefully trying to tell them about all the added value our company brings to the table.

The prospect becomes even more disinterested at this point, but there is a very effective and simple way to handle this situation by using the following question:

“Just so I can be sure we’re talking about the same thing, would you tell me your understanding of what my company does?”

Not only does this question pour water on the dismissal, but it gets the prospect talking. Note that this question is an open ended question which is effective at getting information from prospects and building relationships with them (our two main goals when prospecting).

Yes, I know, this question could potentially be viewed as a little offensive by the prospect. Your tone of voice and demeanor can soften how it comes across over the phone.

We all know that it’s easier for prospects to blow us off on the phone versus when we’re face to face with them. The prospect has already dismissed us when they tell us they know everything about us and don’t want any of what we sell. We really have little to lose by trying this effective response.

If you’re not already a subscriber, <click here> to receive Sales Vitamins™ by email or <click here> to subscribe to the RSS feed. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

In an earlier post I talked about the importance of open ended questions. You remember that open ended questions are questions that can only be answered with an explanation. This kind of question helps the sales process along because it gets more information from your customers or prospects and helps to build a relationship with them. Let me be clear about one thing however; there is a place for closed ended questions too. Closed ended questions can be answered with just one or two words.

Customer: “Your price is a little high, but you’ve got them in inventory and I need them tomorrow.”
Salesperson: “Do you want me to put them on order right now to ensure that you get them on time?”

What a great example of a directed closed ended question. Closed ended questions work best when we are trying to steer a customer or prospect in a certain direction. Think of them as a railroad switch where the train is put on a different track in an instant. We’re not trying to build relationships or get additional information. We’re simply trying to get the customer or prospect to move in a different direction.

Keep these points in mind regarding closed ended questions:

1. You’ll use more of them as you get closer to making the sale. This happens because you are trying to influence the customer or prospect’s thinking in a direct way. If you are using a lot of closed ended questions at the beginning of a relationship you’re probably making mistakes.
2. Open ended questions are great, but you can’t use them for everything. There are times when closed ended questions are more appropriate for the information you need.
3. Too many or poorly contrived open ended questions can hurt more than they can help. Sometimes a closed ended question seems more sincere.
4. Don’t confuse a series of closed ended questions for an open ended question. I see this error almost every time I work with a salesperson. If you machine-gun a customer or prospect with closed ended questions you’ll definitely turn them off. Use closed ended questions sparingly and they’ll have more impact. Telemarketers and “sales-is-a-numbers-game” prospectors are the most frequent violators of this rule. They’ll call up a prospect and just kill them with a relentless series of closed ended questions.

There is most assuredly a place for closed ended questions in the sales process. The problem is that a lot of salespeople only use closed ended questions or use them at the wrong time in the relationship.

Fact: You need information about the customer or prospect. You’ve got to have it, and plenty of it, in order to sell. It’s especially important when prospecting. What is an effective way to get information from a customer or prospect? By asking well directed questions, of course. What is the best technique for asking these questions? By asking open ended questions.

What is an open ended question? Here’s my definition: An open ended question is any question that requires an explanation to answer. The classic definition of an open ended question is any question that does not require a “yes” or “no” answer. I like my definition better. Why? How much do you really learn when you ask the following “open ended” (classic definition) question, “When will your current contracts expire?” Compare that question to what I would consider a true open ended question, “How are your current contracts being managed?” I think we would all agree that the latter is going to provide much more information.

Open ended questioning techniques are something that I am regularly called on to teach to new and experienced salespeople. I’ve found that most salespeople, new and experienced, are very deficient in their open ended questioning abilities. Fact is, they can hardly even give an example in many cases.

So, what’s so great about open ended questions? Two things. Open ended questions get you a lot more information to every question that you ask and they help to build the relationship with the prospect or customer. Getting people to talk and explain is a great way to start building a relationship and to get more information.

I get a lot of sales calls each week and almost every one of them is nothing but a series of closed ended questions. It’s unbelievably annoying and the salesperson learns little. Here’s how they almost always go.

Are you in charge of sales training?
Who do you report to?
Do you buy outside training content?
What did you last purchase?
Do you anticipate buying any outside training content in the next six months?
Do you anticipate buying any outside training content in the next 12 months?
Can I contact you again in three months?
Is this a good number to reach you?
What is your email?

You get the idea; they are all closed ended questions. The salesperson on the other end of the line not only hasn’t learned anything, but they’ve annoyed me instead of building a relationship. Think of the difference it would have made if they had asked, “How is your sales training program organized?”

Actively asking open ended questions to your prospects and customers will yield more information and help to build the relationship. The key is to practice this extremely important sales skill; you are probably more rusty than you think. Of the truly top tier sales professionals that I have had the pleasure of working with over the years, I am convinced that one of the key reasons for their success is their finely tuned ability to ask open ended questions.