One BIG Thing

If there was One Big Thing that you could do to drastically improve your sales results, what would it be?

Sure, having good product knowledge is helpful but people with no product knowledge can still sell well. 

Yes! You’re fabulous and your fantastic positive outlook makes a huge difference, but what if your cat died, or your phone bill blew out to $1,500 this month and your car blew a gasket and the engine seized, or your partner dumped you for someone a lot less attractive than you and your formerly fantastic positive attitude took a nose dive?  If you have the One Big Thing, you can at least console yourself with the fact that you can still sell really, really well.

Brilliant customer service is important, but it’s not in the same league as our One Big Thing.

It should come as no surprise to regular readers of our newsletters that I’m talking about your ability to ask questions.  I know it comes as no surprise to our latest batch of trainees, because I’ve been watching their figures and very intriguing figures they are too!  

They made steady increases in sales through all the modules of our Cert IV course, enough improvement to make their managers (and us) proud.  Then they did the questions module and their sales results exploded! 30% increases were commonplace almost passé, 50% increases had salespeople thrilled and amazed at their own abilities to sell so well and those who’d notched up 80% improvements or more had their managers laughing all the way to the bank.  The fascinating thing is that the trend has continued long after the lessons ended.

Of course it matters that you ask the right questions in the right order, and to do this effectively you need to learn how, but if you do nothing else today but ask your customers three more questions and actually listen to their answers, you will sell more. 

If you’re having trouble coming up with three questions of your own, try using these.  Insert them into appropriate places in your conversation with customers. 

1. What’s your biggest challenge with that? 
2. How does that make you feel? 
3. How do you mean?

Try it, and when you succeed, as I’m sure you will, drop us a line and let us know.