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What Prevents Salespeople from Asking Questions

Posted by Carole Mahoney on 2/10/19 7:30 PM

Many salespeople I talk with aren't struggling so much with what questions to ask, but rather;

"What is preventing me from asking the questions that I know to ask and should ask, but I'm not asking them when I should?"

 

Don't let your emotions blind you.

Why does this happen to us?

When we get excited, when we hear buying signals, or when we're flustered with objections, we start talking to ourselves in our heads. It means that we're letting our emotions blind us to what the next question to ask is, or it's causing a skip in our brain and we want to get right to it, and so we forget the questions.

When we're not in the present moment with our buyers, we're getting caught up in our heads, and we're missing the important pieces of the conversation. How do you stop that from happening? 

What you can do:

I've learned recently that the principles of great performances, correlate to how sales people need to prepare and practice to stay in the moment with their buyers. First, preparation. I don't mean do your preliminary research, because that should be a given, and you should be doing that no matter what. I'm talking about preparing yourself mentally.

1. PPPPPP (Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance)

Before your calls or your presentation,  warm up your voice. You could stretch out, you could practice speaking slowly. You could also do maybe a meditation for five minutes, or do a breathing exercise. You should also prepare as part of your daily lifestyle.

When you take care of yourself physically, it's going to impact your mental health. Eating clean, getting movement every day, reducing your stress will all impact your ability to control your emotions when you need to, and stay in the moment with your buyers, to remember those questions at the moment that it's right to ask them. 

2. Practice, Practice, Practice and Practice More

Professional performers, and sales people that are mastering their craft, practice deliberately. They plan for their calls with research , they write down questions to start conversations with. They look for ways to make it all about the buyer, and their goals. They rehearse with their peers, and their superiors. They examine their call recordings, and they pinpoint places that things went great, and maybe places where they also need to improve. Then they go back and they practice more on those things.

Emotional involvement and emotional control are the things that are preventing you, or enabling you to ask the right question, at the right time, of the right person to uncover urgency, to uncover the impact of problems, and to also find out from your buyers. It's how you're going to differentiate from everybody else.

Topics: sales coaching, salespeople, #livesaleslab