When you ask the right questions, you control the conversation. Questions allow you control the direction of their thoughts. Do you realize how important this is to your sales process?

There are basically two types of questions for you to get the information you need: Open or Closed.

Closed-Ended Questions

Closed-ended questions are questions that can be answered either “yes” or “no” by your buyer.

Examples would be:

• Would you like fries with that?
• Do you think I look fat in these pants?

They can also be questions that ask for a specific piece of information so you can clarify data.

Examples would be:

• What is your address?
• How do you spell your last name?

Open-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions are the opposite of closed-ended questions. They can’t be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” and require your buyer to expand and give you more information.

For example:

• If you were able to buy this today, how would it help you and your family?
• What else do you need to solve your problem?

What Type Of Question Is Better?

Both questions have a specific purpose in the sales process. At the beginning of a conversation with your buyer you may need to ask a lot of closed ended questions to get their situation. I also use them as a check to make sure they’re following along with the conversation (“Are you with me?” or “Any questions about what we’ve covered?”).

Open-ended questions are critically important to get your buyer’s needs, wants, desires and motivation to buy what you’re selling. They allow you to arm yourself with the proper tools so you can aim directly to the heart of the buyer. You won’t need to waste time presenting features and benefits that aren’t of any use or importance anymore.

Do You Hear Me?

The important thing is to actually listen and hear what they’re saying. Give your buyer the time to fully answer the question. Comfortably ask your question and wait for their answer in silence.

Recently, I was in a sales meeting and listening to one man role play his customer conversation. He would ask an important open-ended question and then would give them a couple of options to choose from, making it a closed question. He would ask things like, “How would doing this benefit you…(pause about 1 second) more money, allow you to move you up in your career, or greater freedom?”

While the buyer could begin to open up, he was giving them options to choose from so they didn’t have to really think and answer the question. The entire goal is to get your buyer to open up and give you what they need to buy. Don’t feed them what you think will sell them.

Think about the questions you use when selling. Are you happy with the amount and type of questions you use? Do you get enough information that allows the buyer to make their own decision to buy from you? How will you construct your questions differently to become even more effective?

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© Fox for PersuasionTheory.com, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Covert Persuasion, linguistics, Persuasion Strategies, Presentation Strategies, Questions

Here are three words that can enhance or destroy your persuasion ability. And, when you hear them from others you’ll have greater insight into why you feel the way you do when they speak.

These three words are: “and”, “even though”, and “but.”

These words can destroy your message by either negating or placing emphasis on the wrong part of what you’re communicating.  They can also enhance your message by negating or placing emphasis on the right part of your communication when used properly.

Read these three sentences and notice how different each one makes you feel…

1. I love you but you hurt me.
2. I love you even though you hurt me.
3. love you and you hurt me.

In sentence 1 the ‘but’ negates anything in front of it and places the emphasis on everything that comes after it.  It’s the “you hurt me” part that sticks in your mind and the “I love you” isn’t as important or invalidated.

In sentence 2 with ‘even though’ it’s just the opposite.  The part before ‘even though’ is what’s felt as important.

In sentence 3 when you use ‘and’ it places both sides of the sentence on equal footing.  “I love you” and “you hurt me” end up with the same weight in your mind.

So, how do you use this in your persuasive life?

One of the best ways to establish a sense of authority or credibility is to admit a weakness or flaw in your product or service.  You don’t want to say that what you’re selling is a piece of junk however you want to admit something that is a small flaw, nothing that may kill your deal, just something small that could become an objection.  Then after you say it you say the magic word, “but” and add the great things your product or service can do.  This slides those minor issues into non-existence in the prospects mind.

I don’t like mentioning anything bad at the end of any presentation, sales letter or and situation.  So the ‘even though’ method I would use is to put ‘even though’ at the beginning of the sentence then the negative statement and then the positive statement.  Example is “even though you hurt me I love you.”

Now, with ‘and’ I have a lot of fun.  I use ‘and’ when people give me compliments and when they voice objections.  Let me explain.

If someone gives you a compliment one of the most hypnotic things you can do is say, “that’s right and…” then say what else they can get from buying from you, what else you can do for them, any other positive thing.  They’ll zone out for a second and everything you say drops right into their unconscious mind to act on later.

Now, here’s what to do if someone voices a minor objection, I’m not talking about a deal killer, one of those minor things you would put in front of a ‘but’ if you were the one that brought it up. They object with, “I hear your service is a bit slow to respond sometimes.”  You can reply with, “That’s right they are sometimes and you’ll have access to them 24 hours along with this special XYZ to reduce the need for service anyhow.”

In this situation using ‘but’ would have been bad because you would have invalidated your prospects thought.  By using ‘and’ here instead you’re allowing them to hold their thought, not argue with them, and it quickly diffuses the situation.

Go out and play with these three words (okay 4 words).  Notice the difference response you get when you use ‘and’, ‘but’, and ‘even though.’  Let me know your results.  It’s one of the things I love to hear and you get to profit from this practice.

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© Fox for PersuasionTheory.com, 2008. | Permalink | Leave a comment |
Post tags: copywriting, hypnotic language, Insight, Internal Representation, linguistics, Magic Word, Persuasion, sales, Skills