QUESTIONING
TECHNIQUES

• The Questioning part of the sales process is where you find
out what the customer wants, needs, and desires. Once you
know this you can proceed to actually sell to them!

Objectives of the session
• When do we use Questioning?
• Why we use questions
• Understand when to use questions
• What questions we use to open up the client & close the client
• Types/Examples of questions that work in particular geographical locations
• The funnel technique

When do we use Questioning?
• Before we even engage in a pitch we need to believe that the questions
we use will allow us to access information that will assist in closing the
deal. Preparation – all questions must be prepared and be in front of you
before we pick up the phone.
• You must know to a certain extent what that company does and whom
their likely to target. However do not fall into the trap of assuming you
know all about their targets & market strategy before you call them.

When do we use Questioning?
• Questions must be asked on EVERY call, callback, & during cheque
chasing
• Have your questions visible before EVERY call
• Generally, at the end of your initial Sales pitch, it is time to begin
questioning the prospect

“Successful people ask better
questions and as a result, they get
better answers”
Anthony Robbins

Why do we use Questions?
• Being able to ask the right questions and then use those answers is the surest way
to close your prospects in a shortest amount of time
• Remember a quick no is better than a long drawn out decision resulting in a No –
questioning techniques will allow you to draw out the outcome
• Working on the basis that you are dealing with the decision maker you must very
quickly assess if they are a potential buyer or not. In other words, can their needs
be met by the summit you have to offer. It may not always be obvious to the
prospect that they can use your products but your industry experience tells you
that they can. In this instance we are looking for an opportunity to uncover some
needs. You cannot create needs - but you can uncover them.

Why do we use Questions?
• The key to uncovering needs lies in good questioning
techniques. Questioning is a skill that requires much practice
and concentration but once mastered serves you well
because it allows you to:

QUALIFY
• Allows YOU to decide whether or not this person is serious about buying
the product & if they are worthy of you sending them an email.
Remember it is your time you are wasting buy sending emails to people
who are not properly qualified. How interested are they?

SELL NOT TELL
Most people trying to sell talk too much. "They're good talkers - they must be
salespeople" or “they have the gift of the gab". Most prospects, at the sales stage,
come to expect that a salesperson will probably talk at them, for too long and
about very little, especially their needs. You want to do the unexpected with your
prospects and sell not tell. By asking questions it gives the prospect time to speak
and tell you about THEIR NEEDS.

LISTEN
• If you are talking you are not listening! If you do not listen you will never
find out enough information about the prospect or their needs. Once you
have delivered your pitch Apply the 80/20 rule - you should use
questioning techniques so that the prospect is doing 80% of the talking
and you are only doing 20%.
• Lots of sales people fall into the trap of answering there own questions
with what they want to hear – remember ask a question then SHUT UP!

UNCOVER NEEDS
• Rarely do you get information unless you ask for it. You need information
to sell your summit and if they don’t buy now then look for future sales
possibilities.
• Skilful questioning means that you do not seem to be imposing on the
prospect by asking too many questions.

CONTROL
Using questioning techniques you can control the prospect in almost any
given situation. You can guide the prospect towards acceptance of your
solution. Should you need to, you can use questioning techniques to
regain control.

How to ask questions to get the buyer talking
• So how do you get your prospect talking and telling you about their company, and
their wants, needs, and desires. Use a question that encourages the buyer to open
up and give you more than just a short answer. This is a great sales skill to have
that will help you close more sales. Start your questions with, tell me about, or,
give me an idea. How about, explain to me, and, bring me up to speed. It should
be difficult to answer with a short sentence or just one word?

“To be able to ask a question clearly is
two-thirds of the way to getting it
answered."
John Ruskin

Group Exercise
• In groups come up with 2-3 open ended questions that cannot be
answered in 1 or 2 words.
• To make it more relevant to APAC, we require 2-3 for EACH of the
following locations:
• Japan, Australia, APAC
• Try start your questioning structure with, Tell me, Explain to me,
Show me, describe how
• Questions which you have found to brought you great success
would be ideal!

Questioning technique structure
• Sales questioning techniques require an effective structure. A
structure that will give you all the answers and tell you what to sell
to your prospect.
• Such as the ‘funnel technique’

Funnel Technique

STEP ONE
• The first step is to motivate the prospect into opening up & speaking to you. The
questioning techniques start with a relaxed conversation; you want to stimulate
them to talk. The first step of the sales questioning techniques encourages even
the lowest responders to talk.
• Everyone wants to talk about their own company & why they are the market
leaders! Be careful not to sound too patronizing but top salespeople are genuinely
interested to learn as much as they can about their client/prospect's

Examples:
• Tell me about your products/services as there seems to be a great deal of interest
from our delegation in this area?
• In Japan, we have found the DMs to be very visual so perhaps ask them to open up
our website while we speak
• How are you finding the marketplace at the moment?
• In the credit crunch how do you see your company growing?
• Have you attended an event like this before?
• Tell me about what products/services you are currently promoting?
• (Asian Summit) What countries are you focusing on?

STEP TWO
• Now you have them relaxed, you can begin to probe for information - pegs to hang the sale
on and find out their "hot buttons". You want to find out as much as possible without leading
or influencing the prospect. You want to encourage them to talk. You could ask, for instance,
How are your products/services different from XYZ or your competitors
• What does the XYZ product/service do for your clients?"
At the second step you will more likely than not get several pieces of valuable information.
You must take notes because you may want to go through the "funnel" with each piece and
maybe several times.

Examples
• Explain to me about how your product would benefit one of our delegates?
Describe the difference between your product & XYZ
• Give me your opinion what CFOs/CIOs/CEOs (whoever the delegation
represents) are looking for?
• How long is your sales cycle?
• How much is the product/service worth?
• How much is one sales worth to you?
• What is your decision making process?

STEP THREE
• Once you have started to gather information and uncovered the "hot buttons" you
use open leading questions to pin point specific areas that you want to explore,
exploit or lead the prospect into – not everyone is going to buy for the same
reason, e.g. HP might book purely to exclude IBM, one DM might book to meet an
existing client

Examples
• Closing questions:
• If we can secure your position and in turn exclude the attendance of XYZ –
Can we move ahead?
• If XYZ delegates were present then is this something you would attend?
• On a scale for 1-10 how hot are you – how do I get you to a 10?
• What do I/you need to do at your/my end to make this a yes?

STEP FOUR
• now you summarize using their words and information, to get
their commitment of your understanding of the situation or
their needs
• Closed questions to confirm needs & close the sale

Examples
• "Well, XYZ, we have established that you target CFO/CIO/CEO & that your products are a
perfect fit for them – if the information backs up what we have discussed will you be going
ahead?
• Are you going ahead?
• if the information back up what we have just discussed will this be something that you go
ahead with?
• Confirmation is simple, all that is required is for you to sign a one page booking form, are you
able to sign and send that back to me in 10 minutes
• Asking questions about the payment can also be used at this point:
• who is the right person to speak to in accounts with regards to the payment?
• 50% is due within 5 days, whom do we speak to with regards to this payment

Summary
• Questioning using the funnel technique is one of the most powerful selling tools available to
you. The key to its success is to practice using it. First of all work on your open questions and
then start to close in on more closed questions
• Prepare - Make sure you have them ALL in front of you before you pick up the phone
• Follow the process and use the right questions at the right time
• Understand what questions work best in which markets
• Write down & take note of everything that has been said – it may not be a sale now but you
can use the info to pitch and close the prospect in the future
• Ask for the order! – you don’t ask you don’t get
• The result will be MORE SALES!

“He who asks a question is a fool
for five minutes; he who does not
ask a question remains a fool
forever."
Chinese proverb