Thinking and Questioning Your Way to Sales Success – Part 1

by Dave Kahle

 Reprinted, with permission of the publisher, from QUESTION YOUR WAY TO SALES SUCCESS © 2008 by Dave Kahle.  Published by Career Press, Franklin Lakes, NJ. 800-227-3371. All rights reserved

For a sales professional, there are two basic sets of questions with which a dedicated salesperson should gain competence:  Questions to ask prospects and customers; and questions to ask yourself.  

           Questions we ask ourselves are just as important, if not more so, than those we ask our prospects and customers.  The reason goes back to the ultimate power of a question — it directs our thinking.  Just as a good question directs the customer’s thinking, so, too, does a good question direct our own thinking.  And thinking well is the ultimate success skill for a professional salesperson.

           Some years ago, I was interviewing a group of salespeople for a consulting project in which I was engaged.  One of the salespeople, upon reflection, said, “I’ve come to realize that sales is really a thinking person’s game.”

           I couldn’t agree more.  Ultimately, the way you bring greater results into your organization, make an outstanding career for yourself, and provide more abundantly for your family is by outthinking your peers and your competitors.  Thinking – good thinking done with discipline and methodology – is the ultimate competitive skill.

           Yet, few salespeople, and few people in general, regularly engage in good thinking.  As the philosopher, Bertrand Russell said, “Most people would rather die than think.  In fact, they do.”

           This chapter is not designed to be the final word on how salespeople could think more effectively (that’s the next book!).  However, there are some easily applied rules, processes and practices that will enable you to think better and dramatically impact your performance.

           Let’s start with a simple definition of good thinking for a salesperson:  Good thinking is asking yourself the right questions, in the right sequence, at the right times, and writing down the answers.

Winning the Impenetrable Account

           Every B2B salesperson comes up against large, high potential accounts that seem like they are impenetrable.          

           It’s frustrating and makes you doubt yourself.

           But it doesn’t have to be that way.  In this webinar, Dave Kahle will share with you a proven four-step process for winning the impenetrable account.  You ‘ll learn:

• The four key steps to winning the impenetrable account.
• The five most common reasons why they seem impenetrable.
•  Seven potential strategies to open the door.        
•  How to create an “enticer” – a powerful offer that is too good for them to   refuse.
• Your fallback position – if all else fails, do this.

           Join Dave Kahle as he shares with you the lessons he’s learned over 30 years of working with tens of thousands of B2B salespeople.

           Some of these accounts have the potential to double your sales.  Invest $47 to learn the strategies that will save you years of trial and error.

May 17^th, at 12:30 Eastern time.

Register here

           It sounds so simple, and it is.  The power, like so much else in the world of the salesperson, is in excellent and disciplined execution.  The rest of this chapter is going to discuss what it means to “ask yourself the right questions, in the right sequence, at the right times” but at this point I want to make the case for “writing down the answers.” 

           Writing down, either on a computer or handwriting on a pad of paper, is one of the disciplines of good thinking.  The very act of writing focuses you on the exact words which formulate your answers.  While you can be vague and indistinct as long as the answer is just something you maintain in your mind, when you force yourself to write the answers down you must select the exact words that go on paper.  Thus, writing is a discipline that forces you to think precisely – one of the tenants of good thinking.

           Secondly, putting it in print is an act of commitment.  Once you’ve written the answer, it is there for you to review forever.  Not only does it serve as a commitment – after all, you wrote it – but also as a reminder that you have already gone down this path before and come up with an answer.  When you confront the question that prompted that answer again, you’ll save time by referring to your previous work.

           So, if you are going to think well, you’ll write the answers to your questions down on paper.

           What then, are some of the “right questions” to ask yourself?  I’ve organized them into two major categories:  Personal Effectiveness Questions, and Personal Improvement Questions.

           Personal Effectiveness Questions

There is a set of questions so powerful they have more to do with the eventual success of a salesperson than any other single issue.  The questions, or more appropriately, the answers to those questions are so important that the best salespeople develop disciplines and methods to consistently answer those questions as effectively as possible.

What are the questions?  These:

Where do I go?

Who do I see?

What should I... READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE