But before you start ploughing ahead and firing out those questions, you need to gain your contact’s permission to ask; it’s both professional and consultative, and it avoids you being seen by your contact as some sort of interrogator.

Those you don’t know well, or have met for the first time, won’t thank you for bombarding them with your queries. You have to establish your credibility before they will open up to you. How do you do it without going into ‘tell’ mode and trying to convince your contact how great you are? The secret is to arouse their interest in what you have to offer, make them curious to find out more, and give you some of their time and attention.

If you don’t get your contact’s interest you won’t sell to them

You’ve heard the saying “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink”. Effective selling is the same – there’s no way that you can make your contact buy; rather, your job (metaphorically speaking) is to make them so thirsty that they want to drink!

If you want to get your contact involved in a sales discussion you effectively have only two choices. Either you can try to push your way in by trying to convince them of your value (the ‘tell’ approach) or you can make them so intrigued by the questions you ask that they want to know more … in fact they’ll invite you to tell them. Which method would you prefer - ‘by invitation’ or ‘gatecrash’?

There is, however, a real skill to asking questions which will position you as being better than your competitors, and at the same time help you to build rapport and credibility with your contact.

The seven vital questions to guide your sales zone discussion

If you remember these seven questions you can’t fail to structure your discussions with your contact effectively and come over as thoroughly professional and competent. What’s more, there will be no ‘hard sell’ in your conversation whatsoever. Sound too good to be true? Remember this; if you don’t know the answers to these questions then you will end up guessing what your contact wants, or even worse, assuming you know what they need. The task then, is a relatively simple one. In your discussions with your contact – over one meeting or several – you need the answers to these questions. Get them tattooed on your hand if you must, but remember them, because they are your route map to successfully winning new work. Here goes…

What, specifically, is your contact’s problem, challenge or opportunity?

This isn’t quite as obvious as it sounds. Your contact and their key decision maker colleagues are all likely to each have a different perspective on their situation. They may see it a little, or a lot, differently. It’s your job to get the ‘big picture’ not just one or two ‘angles’ on it.

Why do they see it this way?

Find out the history of the issue or how the opportunity has originated. Who says it’s an issue or opportunity and what’s the evidence for their view? Size it up – what’s the issue costing them in terms of cash, time, resources, reputation etc? What could seizing the opportunity give them in terms of revenue, profile, efficiency, effectiveness etc? What’s the size of the prize?

What would success look like to them?

What’s their vision of a successful result and how will they know when they have got there? In other words, how will they measure their results?

What are their top priorities?

They may have a number of priorities, but which do they see as most important? The answer tells you what matters most to them. Is it growing the top line, or the bottom line (or both)? Is it looking after their people, building their market share, beating their competitors, improving their operations, expansion or what? The answers they give will give you clues about how you should structure the ways you can help. Your message could be vastly different in each of the above cases … but if you don’t know what their priorities are, and in which order they would put them, you’ll be guessing. You want to base your sales message around what matters most to them.

In what ways can you help?

You’ve heard the saying that ‘there’s more than one way to skin a cat’. It’s the same here. To be truly connective in your sales approach you need to set out the options for your contact and any other decision makers. Sometimes it means thinking laterally and collaborating with them on the pro’s and con’s of each option. Great… that’s far better than proposing a ‘boilerplate’ answer or a rigid approach.

What results can they expect from each possibility?

Think through the outcome each of the options is likely to give them. Will the results match up to their expectations of a successful outcome (see question 3)?

Which do you believe is the best route to take?

Taking into account the answers to the six previous questions, what is your recommendation? It should be a logical extension of what you have said before, having weighed up what your contact and other decision makers want, and the best way you can help them solve an issue or capitalise on an opportunity.

Trying to persuade your contact to do anything without knowing the answers to these questions is like setting off on a 1000-mile journey to a destination you’ve never been before, without a map. Of course, you may get there, but it will be more by luck than planning.

About the author

John Timperley is Managing Director of The Results Consultancy, which specialises in helping clients win high value business through effective consultative selling approaches and ‘hands on’ bid and tender support. He can be contacted on 07710 035890.