Buyers expect salespeople to vomit details all over them, making this expectation a huge opportunity. Practitioners of buyer-centric selling engage prospects and clients in highly collaborative conversations. This is one of the few aspects of selling we can actually control.
To achieve this:
- Eliminate leading (multiple-choice) questions as they confine the buyer to your choices instead of hearing their needs and details.
- Limit the use of locking (yes or no) questions to confirming details and closing the buyer since these gag the buy, shutting down their sharing of important details.
- Avoid open-ended questions as these are usually long-winded, forcing buyers to focus more on the questions instead their own answers.
- Generously use launching questions. These provocative inquiries are ten words or less, allowing those answering to give more details since they slow down the brain and evoke more information.
- Employ integrative questions that frame their answers into additional questions. This fully engages the buyer in a fulfilling, collaborative dialogue that is memorable to them and more helpful to you in meeting and exceeding their expectations.
Consultative selling, as a conceptual practice, has been around for more than a decade. However, is this what buyers really want? Do they merely want someone to consult with them, behave like a consultant, or even take a consultative approach with them? Last time I checked, consultants are still often accused of telling people what to do; most buyers aren’t interested in being told what to do.
