Question 1

What questions will you be asking your customers, during the connect phase of any sales call?

Building rapport is about getting to know someone new, by making a connection about something beyond the surface-level. Rapport-building questions help connect people, on a personal level with a unique, memorable, and appropriate answers to start a conversation, versus surface-level questions that may prompt a short back-and-forth, but won’t lead to meaningful connection.

As you know no one and no organisation, is infallible. We will all inevitable make mistakes, at some point. However if you have a really powerful connection and partnership with your customers, it is far less likely that they will turn to your competitors.

Building connection with your prospects and customers, starts from the moment you meet them, for the first time. I am sure that you have heard that people form an impression about you within the first 30 seconds to two minutes, of your first encounter.

Remember that price objections, occur because customers do not see how the VALUE that you offer, meets or exceeds the price you are expecting them to pay. Believe it or not the first impression, your customer gets about you and your organisation, will last for the entire relationship, so if you do not position yourself and your organisation as the premium brand it is, from the get go. Your future customer will struggle to see you and your organisation, as a premium supplier.

Connect

During the connect phase of any sales encounter you need to ask a few questions that will support you to start building Rapport and connection with your customers. Keep all of the above in mind, as you develop a few powerful connection questions, for your customers.

A good rule of thumb for initially establishing rapport, Focuses on icebreaker questions inspired by what you have discovered about your prospect when researching them on LinkedIn.

These are questions about the customer’s location, career, and education.

Example:

I normally only ask one or two of the following type of questions:

• I see that you’re in [city]. What’s the best part about living there?
• Why did you decide to work in [customer’s field]?
• Just noticed you attended [school]. What was it like going to college [in the South/on the West Coast/in a big city/in a small city/etc.]?
• What’s your favourite aspect of your job?

Once you have the formalities out of the way, you want to get an understanding about EXACTLY what the customer is looking for and why, by asking the following really powerful question.

• What made you decide to accept this meeting with me, today?

This is your first opportunity to get to know, what your customers needs, values and expectations are and for you to get a first understanding of how your customer views your organisation.

What questions will you be asking your customers, during the connect phase of any sales call?

Question 2

Now that you have an understanding of the questions, to ask during the Connection phase of any sales encounter, we now need to optimise our questions, by considering the four different personality types, our customers may exhibit.

Connect

When connecting with different customers, we must always take cognisance of the fact that every customer has a different personality type and as such the way we connect with them will be different.

If you struggle to answer this question, at this point, as we have not yet covered how to identify and engage with the different personality types. Just read it for now and revisit it, once we have completed the Sales Enablement process called “The Science of Selling“

TOP PERFORMERS

When connecting with prospective customers, we noticed that the top performers showed a real interest in their future customers.

They asked on average 1 – 2 specific, enquiring personal questions relating to each specific future customer.

It was interesting to notice the emotional intelligence of the top sales performers, in respect of the different personality types.

• When dealing with Socialiser personality type, the top performers asked significantly more personal questions and showed a deep interest in the welfare of their prospects people and family.
• When dealing with an Organised personality type the top performers asked personal questions, but they were very clear as to “HOW” they would support them and their organisation.
• When dealing with a Logical personality type the top performers adjusted their approach towards personal questions and they used their emotional intelligence to ensure that they asked questions, but they were also careful to convey exactly “WHAT” they were there to do.
• When they were dealing with a Dominant type personality, they instinctively asked fewer personal questions, during the connection phase. They ensured that they conveyed very clearly “WHY” they were there.

Think about your next five prospecting calls.

• Who is the person you are planning to meet? – list all their contact details below:
• What are their interests? (sports, hobbies, etc.) – what did you manage to discover when conducting research?
• What is the personality type of the person, you are planning to meet? – This may seem daunting at this stage, as you have not completed the necessary training, to be able to do this successfully. Dont stress, if you cannot complete this step at this point.

If you are not sure about how to do this effectively yet, we will be addressing this in great detail later in this Sales Enablement Process, in the section titled ‘The Science Of Selling“.

Please list your answers blow:

Question 3

What questions will you be asking your customers, using their personality type as a guideline  during the connect phase of any sales call?

Remember that if you struggle to answer this question, because, we have not completed the section, titled, “The Science of Selling“. Just familiarise yourself with the concept of using, a different approach, with each personality type. This will start preparing you to embrace the Art of understanding and leveraging your prospects and customers PERSONALITY TYPE, as a tool to build effective rapport and connection with them.

If you revisit question 1, you will see that we suggested, that you ask the following type of questions, to build rapport with your customers.

From question 1 we stated the following:

I normally only ask one or two of the following type of questions:

• I see that you’re in [city]. What’s the best part about living there?
• Why did you decide to work in [customer’s field]?
• Just noticed you attended [school]. What was it like going to college [in the South/on the West Coast/in a big city/in a small city/etc.]?
• What’s your favourite aspect of your job?

Explore the examples above and now describe, the type of connection, questions you will ask each of the different personality types, to build rapport with them.

Personality Types

1. Socialisers are all about their people and their team and their welfare is very important to a Socialiser.
   • I see you have a really motivated team, what do you believe helps them to be so inspired?
   • How do you believe, we can support you and your team, to optimise their performance and results, when we form a supply partnership, with you?
2. Organiser are all about systems and processes. When asking them rapport building questions, keep this in mind.
   • I have noticed that you are very organised, is that the reason why you entered this field?
   • What sort of systems and processes do you require, to support you to utilise [mention your product or service]
3. Learners are very detailed orientated and love data and information. Keep this in mind when building Rapport with them.
   • When I was researching both you and your organisation yesterday, I noticed  that you attended XYZ University. Degrees and qualifications are very important to LEARNERS and the fact you invested time to research them and their organisation, will earn you huge brownie points, too.
   • What was it like going to XYZ college?
   • What information and data, would you require, before choosing us as your supply partner?
4. Dominant personality types, are very driven and do not have time for small talk or too much socialising, during any business encounter. They want to get down to business, as quickly as possible. When meeting with a Dominant, personality type I ask only one question, during the Rapport phase, namely:
   • What made you accept this meeting with me, today?

This is your first opportunity to get to know, what your customers needs, values and expectations are and for you to get a first understanding of how your customer views your organisation.

Using the above as a guideline and considering how different personality types respond best, please describe the type of questions, you plan to use during the rapport building phase of any sales encounter, below: 

Question 4

What information, do you need to uncover, during your discovery meeting?

The best way to design your discovery questions, start with you first listing all the information, you need to prepare a powerful proposal.

Example:

In the case of my business I need to following information:

• The sales approach they use to reach their markets
• The size of their sales team
• Any challenges they may be experiencing at present
• How the sales team is tracking against target?
• What training, if any they have used in the past
• What their objectives and goals are regarding their sales team?
• What improvements they would like to see after the Sales Enablement Training is over
• Their current undesirable state
• What transformation, do they expect from any Sales Enablement Solution

I am sure that you get the idea.

Think about your own industry, markets and customers.

What specific answers do you need to be able to prepare an engaging sales proposal, which will effectively connect your Value Proposition, to your customers, unique needs, values and expectations and list your answer, below?

Question 5

Using questions, to encourage conversation and engagement, during the Discover phase.

Discover

During the discovery phase of any sales encounter, you want to ensure that you get answers to all the questions, you need answered, to ensure you can prepare a powerful, engaging and informative Sales Proposal.

Once again, the top performers showed that they were emotionally intelligent and as such their approach towards each different personality type was different. It was noted that the top performers asked on average about 8 to 12 questions during the discovery phase of the sales journey.

The questions they asked were carefully crafted and were designed to support them to uncover as much useful information about their future customer as possible.

The top performers spread their questions throughout the conversation, in a natural and balanced fashion. The secret to successful sales engagement is to ask meaningful questions throughout the sales engagement in a natural way. The objective is to encourage engagement and the smooth flow of the sales conversation. Open ended or open-up questions are best as they encourage effective communication.

UNDERSTANDING HOW TO ASK THE RIGHT TYPE OF QUESTIONS

Think about your next five prospecting calls.

• What research do you need to conduct to get a good understanding around both the person you are planning to meet and their organisation.
• What answers do you need to ensure that you can prepare a powerful proposal, which effectively connects your Value Proposition, to your prospects unique needs, values and expectations?
• What further questions, do you need answered, when you meet with your future customer, to help you understand their unique challenges?

Example:

• What is your biggest challenge with ———————-
• What is standing in the way off you making that production line, (Process, system, solution, etc.) more efficient?
• What is your single biggest challenge with XYZ product at the moment?
• What are your objectives regarding how XYZ product operates?
• What metrics, would you like us to use to ensure we achieve the desired improvements?
• What projects are you planning in the future?
• When we solve XYZ challenge, how would that help you to
  • Improve efficiencies
  • Optimise your bottomline
  • Reduce costs
  • Help you to sleep at night
• What made you decide to meet me to address this challenge today?
• What is your single biggest challenge related to XYZ?

I am sure that you get the idea, by now.

Use the above example and describe in detail, all the questions you intend to use during the discovery phase of any sales encounter.

Please list all the questions, you need to ask during the discovery phase of your next five prospecting meetings.

Question 6

In the previous question, we explored the different types of questions, you would ask during the discovery phase of any prospecting call.

In this question, we are attempting to polish our questions, so that they are more applicable for each personality type and their unique, way of communicating and understanding.

For simplicity, and to help understanding, I will be asking the same question, of each personality type. I will however phrase it, so that each personality type will respond to it most favourably.

Please don’t worry if you struggle with answering this section, before you have completed the Sales Enablement process, called the “Science of Selling“.

The question I am going to ask each personality type is listed below:

What are your sales teams goals in respect of becoming an additional resource to their customers, so that they can integrate into their customers businesses?

Example:

Socialisers – when you have identified that one of your customers is a Socialiser personality type, you should do the following:

• Always try to include how any product or service you intend introducing will support their team to optimise efficiencies, support their team to be more happy or satisfied etc.
• Always relate everything back to their team and include people as much as possible

How would becoming an additional resource to your customers, support your sales team members to effortlessly integrate into their customers businesses, so that they can form meaningful long term sales relationships with them?

Organisers – when you have identified that one of your customers is an Organiser personality type, you should do the following:

• Always try to include systems or processes, and how they will be implemented, into any conversation

How do you feel about introducing your sales team to a unique system, that will support them to effortlessly, become an additional resource to their customers, so that they can integrate into their businesses?

Learner – when you have identified that one of your customers is an Learner personality type, you should do the following:

• This personality type is driven by information and data.
• You can never overwhelm a learner with too much detail or information

What information would you require, to demonstrate how we can enable your sales team to become and additional resource to your customers, so that they can integrate into their customers businesses?

Dominant – when you have identified that one of your customers is an dominant personality type, you should do the following:

• This personality type is does not like to waste time
• They want you to be brief, be bright and be gone

What are your sales teams goals in respect of integrating into their customers business, so that they can integrate into their business, WOW their customers and achieve their sales targets?

I am sure that you can see from the above that by uncovering each customers personality type, you can tailor your message, in a way that they understand and respond to best.

Invest the time to create unique questions for each personality type and you will find selling becomes, far easier, as your customers and prospects, will more readily understand you and your offering.

Describe in detail, below how you intend to modify your questions, so that they are related to how each personality type communicates and understands

Question 7

Using questions to encourage conversation and engagement, during the show phase of your five next prospecting meetings

SHOW

When conducting our research, we noticed that the top performers, were very focused on asking each personality type the right type and amount of questions, to support them to discover exactly how to demonstrate how their value proposition would support their future customers. They were sure to be authentic in their approach and in no way, did they ever come across as though they were pitching at all.

They remained very conversational throughout and ensured that they engaged with everyone in the meeting. Ensuring that they guided the conversation to encourage the conversation to bounce between all attendees. The more back and forth dialogue during each phase of the sales journey the better the odds that they closed each sale.

When demonstrating how their products or services would serve their future customers, they were certain to speak to each personality type in a way that related to the way they think and make decisions. When demonstrating how their product or service (value proposition) would serve their customers the top performers were certain to focus on the needs and expectations of each different personality type.

Socialiser – When demonstrating to socialisers, the top performers focused their conversation on showing them who their value proposition would serve. In other words, their demonstration was designed to show the socialiser how doing business with them would help them better serve their people.

Organiser – The demonstration delivered by the top performers to an organiser was always focused on systems, organisation and how doing business with them would help them and their team to become more efficient and effective.

Learner – Top performers know that learner personality types require copious amounts of the right information. When demonstrating to this personality type they ensure that they provide enough of the right information, so that they can understand exactly what their organisation will do for them, their organisation and their people.

Dominant – When top performers deliver a demonstration they are sure to only deliver a summary, which highlights the pertinent points thy discovered were relevant during the discovery phase of the sales journey.

The poor performers, did not deliver very engaging demonstrations and in most cases, they focused on how great their organisation was and they spent an inordinate amount of time focused on delivering a feature dump to their prospects.

Think about your next five prospecting calls.

• What questions, are you planning to ask during the show or demonstration phase of your next prospecting meetings, to keep the customer engaged and involved. It is really easy to deliver a long monologue, when delivering a demonstration.
• What questions are you planning to ask during the demonstration phase to keep your customer interested and involved?

Example:

I ask questions like these:

• Is that something that would help your sales team acquire the sales skills they need to……………
• How would those audio books help the ongoing learning of your sales team?
• What do you think about that ……… How do you think it will support your sales team to…….

Think about your own markets, industry and customers.

What questions, can you ask during the demonstration phase, to ensure that your customers remain engaged and interested.

Please list your answer below:

Question 8 

Using questions, to encourage engagement and involvement, during the closing phase of your prospecting call.

Closing

Closing is an art and in no way, depends on using clever closing techniques. The top performers know this and throughout the sales journey they keep things conversational and engaging. They only move towards a close, where they ask for the sale, once they have earned the right to “CLOSE THE SALE”

Earning the right to close a sale is achieved, when you have asked enough questions, during the discovery phase, understood how to best communicate their value proposition to each personality type and then you have effectively demonstrated how best your product or service will serve each different future customer.

Even during the CLOSE, it is important to keep your customer involved and engaged.

Example:

I ask questions like the ones below, during the close phase of any sale.

• We have scheduled the mindstorming session for the 5 September, who will be attending?
• I will be completing the first proposal, which I will send to you electronically, is there anyone else you want to include in the email?
• We are due to start implementing the Sales Enablement Solution, next Saturday, is there anything else you want to know, before we proceed?

Think about your own markets, industry and customers. List at least 10 different questions you can ask during the closing phase of any sales call.

The objective when asking these questions, is to ensure that your future customer remains engaged and involved throughout the sales process