Who is the decision maker?
What are the customer’s primary business drivers?
How much is the deal worth?
What’s their timeframe for making a decision?
What are the next steps?
Is there any way to close the business sooner?

These, along with any number of other similar tracking questions, are staples of sales forecast reviews that are transpiring within sales organizations at companies all over the world. Proactively coaching your sales teams, however, requires more than just tracking deals on the forecast.

Personally, I am a huge proponent of qualification, in order to know how best to allocate resources toward those opportunities that present the greatest potential. But there is a catch. These qualifying questions simply identify the status of each deal, which does nothing to make the salesperson or sales team more effective in terms of the opportunity itself or developing their skills down the road. In fact, tracking questions serve no purpose other than gathering information.

On the other hand, proactive sales questions (asked strategically) enable sales teams to accomplish much more than simply gathering information. For example, strategic questions are one of your best vehicles for establishing credibility and piquing the customer’s interest. Strategic questions are also one of the best ways to convey value, forge relationships, develop internal champions, create referrals, and secure smaller commitments on the way to consummating the larger sale.

The desire to track deals on the forecast is a given in sales. But, shouldn’t there be a similar desire to increase the effectiveness of the sales team? That’s why I advocate the addition of a series of ‘forward-thinking’ strategic sales questions that promote thought leadership and are designed to help sales teams develop and execute more effectively moving forward.

Some of the more thought provoking questions I teach include:

Q: How many reasons does the customer have to buy from you?
Q: Is there anything we can do to increase the customer’s sense of urgency for making a decision?
Q: What can we do to get deeper, wider, and more strategic within the account?
Q: How can we position our solutions as the most cost-effective alternative?
Q: What business issues, decision factors, or ideas are you prepared to raise in your calls that customers may not think to bring up on their own?
Q: How are you differentiating yourself from competitors who are targeting your same list of prospect accounts?
Q: How can we help our internal champions secure the approvals necessary to move forward with a decision when we’re not onsite or in the meeting?
Q: Is there anything we can do to be more effective on future customer calls?

When coaching individuals or entire sales teams, my favorite question is one of the simplest: “What business issues, decision factors, or ideas are you prepared to raise in your calls that customers may not think to bring up on their own?”

If you have read any of my books or experienced one of my training classes, then you know that I am NOT a fan of the old-school mentality of “uncovering needs.” Truth be told, customers aren’t always clear as to what they need, in which case, you’re not going to find out by barraging them with probing questions. Even when the customer knows exactly what they need, potential buyers are often reticent to share their needs with a salesperson they don’t yet know or trust.

That’s why I preach Needs Development—the skill of proactively raising business issues or decision factors that otherwise wouldn’t have come up.

To prove the point that customers aren’t prone to fully articulating their needs, try this experiment. Simply ask one of your friends or coworkers why they own a cell phone (just as an example). Some will say it allows them to communicate. Others might mention that it gives them access to email or provides a sense of security. I don’t doubt those benefits for a minute. But, that’s NOT why people buy or own cell phones!

Ask them if they also use their cell phone to take pictures or videos. Does it give them greater mobility, enabling them to be in closer touch with their customers? Do they use it to manage their calendar, or to listen to music while on the go, or to play video games during periods of downtime? Does their phone also serve as a contact manager, hand-held calculator, flashlight, timepiece, alarm clock, and weather forecaster, in addition to providing directions, traffic alerts, and GPS coordinates to their favorite restaurant?

Most cell phone users leverage technology to address a wide variety of needs. But when asked, “What do you look for in a cell phone?,” the vast majority of potential buyers will mention only some fraction of the aforementioned capabilities. So, who’s going to bring up the rest? If not you, then you leave the door wide open for one of your competitors to be seen as a more valuable resource.

Hence my question: “What ideas, business issues, or decision factors are you prepared to raise that the customer may not think to bring up on their own?”

Trying to uncover a customer’s pain points is a mistake that’s not only costing companies a ton of money in terms of lost revenue and missed opportunities, it continues to be promoted amongst sales teams all over the world.

“Easing a customer’s pain” may seem like a nice gesture, but the notion of probing for pain (only) contains two illogical flaws in today’s selling environment. First, focusing on prospects who are currently experiencing pain significantly reduces the size and scope of your target audience. While everyone agrees that people who are ‘in pain’ are indeed motivated to find solutions, it turns out that decision makers and influencers are just as motivated to purchase products and services because of many other factors.

Technology titan Apple, for example, has sold over a billion (with a “B”) iPhones since 2007, and they generated $9+ billion in iPod revenue before that. How many iPods and iPhones do you think were purchased because the customer was in some sort of pain? 

It turns out that customers purchases products and services based on a wide range of decision factors. Whether you sell technology solutions, manufactured goods, employee benefit packages, or healthcare services, the decision to acquire your product or service may be driven by something as simple as the desire to achieve a goal or satisfy specific business objectives. Potential buyers can just as easily be motivated by wants, needs, or an opportunity to improve their existing condition.

So, why would you want to limit the size of your audience to only focus on customers who are currently experiencing pain, when the larger opportunity includes prospective buyers who are just as driven to acquire solutions to address any number of other wants, needs, goals, objectives, and desires?

In addition to limiting the size of your target market, the second flaw with the strategy of uncovering the customer’s pain points is that it can come across as highly offensive to the people you are so desperately hoping to influence. If you call on customers who are either territorial or proud of the work they do, good luck bonding with them by trying to expose their flaws, faults, and deficiencies.

Case in point, if you call on a Network Manager and ask: “So, what problems do you have managing your data?” Predictably, their knee-jerk reaction will likely be to say, “We’re doing just fine, thank you (click).”

Even if you mean well, probing for pain is a high-risk strategy. Trying to expose a customer’s weaknesses, or shining a light on their oversights, is one of the quickest ways to put people on the defensive. If you really want to get under the customer’s skin, try firing off a series of pain-oriented questions like: “So, what mistakes have you made?” “What decisions do you regret?” Heck, you might as well ask them, “How ‘come you’re still employed here?”

Fortunately, there’s a proven antidote to this old-school practice of attacking the customer’s ego. All you have to do is reverse the premise of your questions. Instead of ‘chipping away’ at the customer’s pride by trying to indict the status quo, or contunually exploring what’s wrong, a more thoughtful salesperson could just as easily ask (an IT Manager, for example), “How important is securing the data on your company’s network?” When talking with an HR Director, you could ask, “Would you be interested in a cost-effective way to expand your company’s employee benefits package?” A better way to explore a Facilities Manager’s needs in a manufacturing plant might be to ask, “Would you be open to a couple ideas on how to improve your plant’s overall operational efficiency?”

Before you start dialing the phone, or begin crafting a bunch of clever one-liners to take out into the field, it’s important to recognize that an effective needs development strategy requires more than a single ‘magic’ question. That’s why I’ve written multiple books on the subject.

For our purposes here, I’m merely pointing out that “probing for pain points” is one of the most common mistakes sales teams make. On the other hand, salespeople who focus on helping their customers satisfy a broader range of goals, wants, needs, and objectives can significantly increase their own sales results.

Here’s the best part. Exploring decision drivers that extend far beyond just uncovering “pain points” is actionable on your very next customer call—that is, if you are open to a couple ideas.

Most customers focus on 3 letters when making important purchase decisions. At the end of the day, they will choose whichever product or service they believe provides the greatest return on investment (ROI).

Sales organizations, on the other hand, should focus on 5 letters, those being: R-O-I-S-E (Return on Invested Sales Effort).

Too often people refer to the familiar theme that sales is a “numbers game.” While I agree that tracking activity & results is, and will always be, an integral part of managing sales teams, simply pressing salespeople to make more calls in an effort to fill the pipeline ignores the most important metric in any business—sales efficiency.

Now that the average success rate for sellers leaving voice-mail messages or sending email solicitations has dropped below 1%, rather than just ‘banging the phones’ and hoping for the best, one has to wonder why there’s not a greater focus on the notion of increasing sales effectiveness.

The ‘number’ sellers should really focus on is conversion rate. What if were possible to get a 30%, 40%, or 50%+ response rate when reaching out to new prospects, as opposed to a 1% return on your invested sales effort? Similarly, what if you could accelerate the sales cycle, create a greater sense of urgency, maintain higher margins, and improve your closing ratio?

Relying on sales tricks or gimmicks to boost performance is unsustainable in today’s competitive business environment. But show me someone who is not only focused on sales efficiency, but knows how to execute more effectively, and I will show you a top performer in any company or industry.

How does one increase their R-O-I-S-E? I have published six books on the subject of sales effectiveness, but for our purposes here, allow me to give you three simple thoughts that can be implemented next time you talk with real live prospects or customers:

1.) Create Mini-Invitations

It’s easy to dive straight into ‘sales mode’ and barrage customers with questions. But just because you want to ask a bunch of sales questions doesn’t mean customers will “want to” share information with a salesperson they don’t yet know or trust. That’s why the very first question in my needs development strategy is:

 Seller: “Mr. Customer, can I ask you a couple specifics about ______?”

This question is not only easy to ask, it’s easy to answer—typically with a “Yes.” In Question Based Selling, we call this securing a mini-invitation.

Once the customer says, “Yes,” “Sure,” or gives you any other affirmative response, they have essentially invited you to ask questions. Bingo! By securing a mini-invitation to ask questions, you can expect to get more information, in more depth, that’s also more accurate.

2.) Trying to Indict the Customer… Seriously?

Sellers offer solutions to solve problems. And, in order to actually solve a problem, you first need to know what issues the customer is currently experiencing.

Trouble is, the issues or problems customers face are oftentimes self-induced. While the typical sales mindset is to ‘uncover’ the customer’s needs, there are plenty of occasions where decision makers aren’t excited about exposing their vulnerabilities.

For example, here are a few typical sales questions that can actually thwart your needs development efforts:

Salesperson:

“What problems do you have with your current operation?”
“Are you aware of the new compliance regulations?”
“Is it important to stay within a certain budget?”

Typical Responses:

“We’re doing just fine, thank you.”
“What, do you think we’re ignorant and uninformed?” 
“Of course budget is important, duh!” (click)

3.) “Besides the Obvious Goal of…”

One of the best ways to sidestep the risk of asking overly rhetorical sales questions is to ask “to what extent” a certain topic is important to the customer or needs to be further explored.

For example, asking if ‘reliability’ is important to a customer sounds silly. Of course reliability is important! I would be more inclined to ask, “To what extent is reliability important?” Asking the customer to quantify their perspective on relevant topics is one of the simplest ways to remove the “Duh!” factor.

Another risk reduction technique is simply to ask, “Besides the obvious goals of ____, ____, and ____, what else are you concerned about?” Fill in the blanks with three topics that are relevant to the target industry, and the pride factor that so often causes people to be guarded in their responses is more likely to generate the opposite reaction—where customers open up and share tons of valuable information.

Bottom line: Just ‘probing’ for needs is intrusive and laced with risk. A strategic approach to needs development gives savvy salespeople an opportunity to increase their R-O-I-S-E by raising potential issues, objectives, goals, wants, needs, and desires that the customer may not have otherwise considered. In fact, helping potential buyers better understand their needs is one of the greatest opportunities sellers have to add value throughout the sales process.

Too often, sales teams wait until the end of a fiscal period before they shift into high gear, and ‘push the pedal’ all the way to the floor, in an effort to boost results. Since the day of reckoning is surely coming, however, why wait until your back is against the wall to ramp up sales productivity?

It would be optimistic to hope enough deals would simply materialize out of thin air to make your numbers before year-end. It’s more likely that whatever business you close in the coming months will be a direct result of the level of effort you put forth in the coming weeks–to cultivate new prospects, nurture qualified opportunities, and ultimately, bring deals to fruition.

So, why delay? Crunch time is…NOW!

With half the calendar year already behind us, and the finish line now in sight, here are three specific execution strategies worth considering:

1.) Re-Think Your Account Penetration Strategy

How many voice-mails have you deleted, or email solicitations have you trashed, in the last few weeks without listening to the entire message, or reading past the very first sentence? A bunch? That’s because traditional ‘cold calling’ tactics are no longer cutting it, and continuing to sound just like everyone else who is knocking on your same door list of target accounts has become somewhat of a futile exercise.

Fortunately for those who are willing to step outside the box of traditional sales thinking, there is an antidote for customer standoffishness—curiosity.

If a key decision maker in an important target account is not the least bit curious about who you are or what you can do for them, it’s highly unlikely that you will get an audience with them. On the other hand, as prospective buyers become more curious about how you can add value, that’s the ticket to securing a precious slice of their time and their attention.

So, what are you doing to ‘leverage curiosity’ in the sales process? If the answer to that question isn’t clear, whether you prefer books, audio, or on-site training, I’ve spent the last 20+ years teaching sales teams how to gain an ‘unfair’ advantage in terms of penetrating more new opportunities.

2.) True Differentiation is Highly Intangible

Simply claiming to offer the best products is no longer enough if you sell into highly competitive markets. You must also find ways to differentiate yourself from everyone else who is out there claiming that, “We’re better.”

Trouble is, important sales attributes like credibility, integrity, and thought leadership are not just something that can be indiscriminately claimed. They must be earned, which is why it’s crucial for salespeople to understand how to convey more intangible value than the competition, throughout the sales process.

3.) Secure Smaller Commitments on the Way to the Larger Sale

Strategic deals generally require a series of smaller sub-steps on the way to consummating a mutually beneficial business transaction. As a result, your ability to secure those initial and secondary commitments are often just as important as wrapping up the final deal.

What’s the best way to secure these smaller commitments? One option is to try and push customers to move forward. Another is to beg. The best option to move your opportunities forward is to use of superior closing technique.

What does an effective closing question sound like? Here’s just one of many examples:

Salesperson: “Mr. Customer, would it make sense to get the appropriate people together in front of a flipchart (or WebEx), so we can map out your options, how they would impact your business, and the associated costs?”

If you treat the mid-summer months as “crunch time,” and focus on increasing your sales effectiveness in each of these areas, the seeds you sow in the near-term should put you in a strong position to far exceed your numbers by year-end.