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Ken!
Question Everything!
by John Jantsch
Listen to and capture every question your clients and prospects ask. Then ask some more questions.
Or,
more to the point of the title, question everything word you use to
market your business and then answer every question in your
marketing.
People make buying decisions in ways that we may find hard to
imagine. The mental, logical process and the emotional, feel good
process come together at some point in every sale. The problem,
though, is that this process is invisible to the marketer.
Here's my best advice for making sure that your marketing
materials hit the logical and emotional mark.
Every time a prospect or client asks a question, write it down.
Collect these questions on an ongoing basis, make every sales person
note the questions they receive. In a very short period of time you
will see patterns develop. If you are getting some of the same
questions over and over again you can bet that your marketing
materials need to address the answer to those questions.
The questions our prospects ask are often clues to what matters to
them. So, forget about the new shiny features of your gizmo and
address what's really on their mind. Do it now, because some of your
prospects won't think to actually ask, they'll just move on.
It's one of the reasons FAQ pages are so popular on web sites. Maybe
you should create one for your sales team as well.
Make a game out of getting good questions. Ask everyone in your organization to bring a client or prospect question to a weekly sales meeting. This can and should include everyone that has any contact with clients.
The Art of the Question in a Question
This
can be a bit intimidating for a less than confident salesperson but
you must develop the art of asking questions too. Every sales
trainee has been schooled at some point to ask probing questions to
find a prospect's pain, but really successful sales folks go beyond
that fully understand what a prospect is thinking.
This is done by getting them to explain a question. When a prospect
asks a question often they are doing so because they think it's a
question they are supposed to ask in the buying process. Your job is
to help them understand what they really need to know and you start
this by finding out what they really mean by each question.
It's a bit of an art, but sometimes it's a simple as asking them to explain a question or asking them to "tell you more" about something. For example if a stock question is something like "What is your customer service policy?" the temptation might be to launch into how great your service is (just like everyone else), but a more valuable step might be to find out what good service is to them or what bad experience they may have had.
If
you really want to make massive improvements in your sales, service
and communications technique, you might want to buy a little mini
digital recorder and record several sales calls. Some clients and
prospects will be a little nervous about this practice so you will
need to choose wisely and respect boundaries, but do this once or
twice and you may make some pretty interesting discoveries.
Another great thing about gathering your list of questions is that
it arms you with the questions and answers that your prospects may
not ask but are thinking. I think every organization should create a
marketing page and web page that is titled something like "Questions
you should ask." In some cases your prospect may not really know how
to analyze a purchase from you. If you educate them on the best way
to think about your product or service, give them the questions to
pose to competitors, you get to frame the buying decision,
hopefully, in a way that plays to your strengths.
~ ~ ~
John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and
author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small
Business Marketing Guide published by Thomas Nelson - due out
in the fall of 2006
He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business
marketing system. You can find more information by visiting
http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/