Are You Asking the Right Questions?
Interpretation and perspective
Wording is EVERYTHING.
When it comes to asking questions throughout the sales cycle, it’s not just how you deliver a question but what the actual question is.
Imagine this scenario:
You’re in a conversation going through discovery. You want to understand who are the key stakeholders and teams involved in the decision making process.
You might ask the following:
Who else is involved in making this decision?
Who is driving this initiative?
Who else cares about this outcome?
All of these questions are geared towards understand who are/is the decision maker(s). Each of those questions however, will give you three different answers.
Context is also important. Who are you speaking to? Middle management, associate, or senior executive?
With each, you’ll get a different perspective on the answers to your questions. You may even get a different perspective from the same prospect you’re speaking with, depending on how you’re wording.
Customer Example
Given that end of year is around the corner, I’ve been engaging with prospects over the past few months on end of year deals. Getting an understanding of what the process to execute a contract looks like is critical. Most of my dialogue has been with both business stakeholders and procurement.
I typically ask:
“It’d be great to get an understanding of what the process looks like to execute a contract, can you help walk me through that?”
Responses varied but the key theme was that most answers looked like this:
“We’re still in the process of budgeting, so maybe we can pick up the conversation a month from now?”.
What’s so interesting is that they assumed I was looking for a hard commit on numbers. Thing is, that wasn’t my question. As a sales person, you might be reading my wording and think it’s straightforward. To someone who’s not in sales, it’s clear that they were understanding the question differently.
Never Assume Definitions
Often times wording seems straightforward. It’s easy to assume we’re both talking about the same thing. It’s safer, however, to clarify what someone means.
It’s evident in this scenario, but it’s happened in other scenarios outside of contract process as well. Just because YOU understand or interpret wording a certain way, doesn’t mean that is what is being communicated, or that the other person understands or interprets the wording in the same way.
Always clarify.
In the example above, I had to clarify with:
“Just so we’re on the same page, I’m more so looking to understand the steps to take to execute a contract once you’ve decided on numbers.” (Restate in a different way what I’m looking to understand)
That way I can work backwards once you’ve finalized numbers and budgeting. I’m not looking to get a signature today.” (Take the pressure off, just being proactive)
With that clarification, the theme in responses looked like this:
“OH! Thanks for clarifying. Yes typically we have legal, you should connect with so and so in procurement, etc.”
Another observation I noticed in these conversations was that even though I’m getting the perspective of how to execute the contract, I still needed other viewpoints to really get a clear picture of what the process actually looks like.
Utilize This in Your Sales Process.
There’s never one right question to ask. The answers you obtain depend on the person you’re speaking with and what they’re understanding.
Wording the questions unlocks what you’re trying to extract. More often than not, a prospect isn’t trying to withhold information - they’re just responding based on their interpretation.
It seems obvious writing this but it’s overlooked quite a bit. This is why B2B enterprise sales is so hard - because you’re dealing with multiple perspectives and interpretations.
You can, and should, ask multiple variations of the same question as well. In my opinion, the more perspective and info I can get in a sales cycle, the better.
Humans aren't linear, they’re fluid. Much like the sales process. That’s why “people” are always the messiest variable in sales. Really anything, ha.
One last thought, don't blitz a prospect with the same question and multiple variations following it. That'd be weird.
As always, thank you for reading.
Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving.
-Andrew K