By now most sellers understand that responding to an email that comes to info@companyname with a request for a price with “it's this much” is a quick way to create a skinny funnel; however, there is such a thing as too much questioning of a buyer.
We need our sellers to be conversational with their buyers. If their buyer feels like they are being interrogated our seller is going to damage the relationship or break rapport. While our seller might end up closing that piece of business it’s unlikely, they will create a long term relationship because they made their buyer uncomfortable.
A quick acid test for when one of our sellers should answer a buyer's question is - if the information can be found using a search engine, answer the question then tag a question at the end.
When a seller ends a response to a buyer with a period it's like letting a fart out during a formal dinner, the whole conversation dies (or at least so I'm told 😊).
This can be very challenging for newer members of our sales teams who have a mindset that they are there to “serve the customer.” Sellers are advocates from the company to the buyer not the other way around; however, our seller does need to create buyer safety.
If their buyer says something like, “tell me about your product,” our seller could say something like, “well our product is for people who are seeking to do this, tired of this happening, or frustrated that this is happening in their business. Which of those is on your plate and worth a conversation?”
That example is just that, an example. You probably have three better ones on the tip of your tongue right now. The ultimate point here is our sellers need to put a question back to their buyer to keep the conversation going. When they end a response with a period that is not an implied question their buyers are in control of the conversation are more likely to have our seller say and do things that are not in their best interest because they get nervous, and they think that if they don't do those things they're going to “lose out” on this “opportunity.”
The other reason why we want our sellers to ask a question is because even though the information may be available on a website we don't necessarily know why the buyer asked that question. Professional sellers get paid on the information that they gather not the information that they give so we want our seller to discover why did the buyer asked that question. If this buyer doesn’t want to move forward because they don't like what they hear well that's great because our seller can go spend more time on real, qualified prospects as opposed to those that are just kicking their tires.
To support our sellers in making the “answer and then ask a question” process create more natural role play with them on a regular basis those common questions that buyers ask even though they could have found the information with a search engine.
Until next time… go lead.
P.S. you might have wondered, “what about answering the ‘how much’ question?” That’s the topic of our next article – How to Answer “How Much” at Every Stage of Your Sales Cycle, on September 24.
You might also be interested in:
