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| This is a weekly column transcribed from my Radio Show. The "Top Story" is the major discussion each week in which I address in great depth and detail, aspects of selling that are pertinent to your job everyday. |
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| Obligating Questions as a Selling Advantage |
We're going to talk today about using obligating questions as a selling advantage.
I've created a process called The Six Steps to Excellence in Selling. The first step is called Find the Prospect; the second step is called Find the Decision-Maker; and in pro-active, outbound selling, the third step is called Arrange an Appointment. The fourth step is called Ask Questions and Listen. The fifth step is called Present the Solution, and the final step is called Ask for a Commitment. And the way that we learn how to ask for commitments is to teach ourselves how to use obligating questions.
When I was a new salesperson, I was pretty good at the first five steps. Even though I hadn't created the system yet, I was learning the sales profession and learning how to apply those and fit those into my six-step model. I'll never forget - one of my early sales managers took me into his office. I wasn't doing as well as I possibly could. He sat me down, and he said, "You know, Warren, you're not really a professional salesperson yet." I was shocked to hear that, of course, because I thought I was doing a pretty good job, even though it hadn't been reflected in my sales numbers yet. He looked at me right in the eyes, and he said, "You're a professional visitor. A professional visitor."
Now you might chuckle and say, "Come on, what the heck's a professional visitor?" A professional visitor is someone who goes through all the right steps in the sales process. They're easy to talk to; they share information well; they don't interrupt the client or prospect when they're talking; they're invited back to make additional presentations. But at the end of they when they come back to the office, they come back without the commitment or without the order.
This sales manager recognized this about me, and he said, "In order to become a professional sales person, you need to learn to ask obligating questions." And then he put me on the spot. He said, "Give me an example of an obligating question that you used on the last sales interview that you went on."
You know what, folks? I was stunned. I realized that I had not asked the customer or the prospect to do something. And that's the secret to understanding what obligating questions are all about.
And you know why I was afraid to ask that question? It's because of this one small word that begins with "N" and ends with "O". And it's called "NO". Nobody likes to hear "no"; in fact most people don't even like to say "no".
So here you are; you're a professional salesperson. You get done presenting your product or your service, and there is a time when it's appropriate to say something like, "Where do we go from here? How are we doing so far? Would you like to get started right away?" These are all examples of obligating questions.
But somehow, because we're afraid of that small word called "no", we stay stuck in step five, Present the Solution. And we start talking more about features and more about benefits. "Oh, just last week John Smith bought this product and he loved it. And you're going to like too. In fact, Bob Brown bought it two weeks ago."
And we go on and on and on and on, hoping that the person is going to interrupt us and say, "Can I buy that?" Or they'll bring out a piece of paper and they'll say, "Can I create a contract here on my desk?" Obviously, it doesn't work that way. But that's what happens to us when we get stuck in step five.
Here's the way I figured how to move beyond staying stuck in step five. I thought about some of my heroes, and my hero growing up was a baseball player who's name was Roberto Clemente. He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was in the Hall of Fame; he had made 3,000 hits. He was one of the best players in the 1960's and early 1970's. and you know, when he was a batter, he batted 300 for his career; actually he batted 301 for his career, which meant that 70% of the times, when he got up to the plate he made an out. He struck out; he hit a fly ball; he hit a ground out; he hit into double plays. He basically failed 70% of the time. What was his reward for failing 70% of the time? He got into the Hall of Fame. OK, I thought, if Roberto Clemente can fail 70% of the time, and he was amazingly successful, imagine what it would be like for me if I only failed 70% of the time. Heck, I'd be in the Salesperson's Hall of Fame, wouldn't I?
Once I understood that I could not control outcome, all I could control was asking the question…Similarly in baseball, when you get up there, you don't know if you're going to make a hit or an out, but you can't just not go up to the batter's box. Imagine if Roberto Clemente made eight outs in a row, and then his name was pencilled in the lineup and Danny Murtaugh, the manager, said, "OK, Clemente, you're up." And he said, "Oh, no, I failed the last seven or eight times. I'm not going up there again." I mean it's ludicrous. He went up there and took his swings. Learning how to ask obligating questions is like taking your swings.
Another way you can look at this is don't think about the word "no" as that you're being personally rejected. Don't think about it in terms of the word "N O", but rather think about it in terms of "K N O W". In other words they just don't know enough to say "yes". Or they don't know enough to move forward. Or they haven't heard enough of the reasons why they might want to get involved with my product or service.
So once you learn how to use the word "k n o w" in your consciousness instead of "no", then you'll be able to ask obligating questions.
OK, let's put the psychology of that aside for a second. Let's talk about the technique or the tactics of what obligating questions are all about. What is an obligating question, you might ask. That's a good question. An obligating question confirms that either the prospect or client is moving forward, or they're going to raise some issue - an obstacle, some resistance, an objection, a delay, an obstacle, or what have you.
So let me give you some examples of obligating question. Let's say in Step Two of the Six Steps to Excellence in Selling, you're trying to find out who is the right person to talk to at a particular company. Now, an obligating question might be, if you have somebody on the phone, you might say, "Let me ask you a question, when you're…"
[tape cuts out]
Or they might say it's too much money, it's too far away from where I live, it's all chopped up, it's going to cost a lot of money to reconfigure it. So what you can see here is another example of an obligating question. In this case, it is using an obligating question in an open-ended manner.
No matter what type of business you're in, and in fact, when I do my seminars, I always get to the fifth step of the pyramid, the six step pyramid, and then I ask people, "OK, what do you think the sixth step is?" Invariably the answers I get are, "Close the sale. Get the business. Go for the order." And I listen to those responses for awhile, and then with a big smile on my face, I say, "You're wrong! You can't close a sale. But you can learn how to ask for commitments." The best way to graduate to Step Six is to understand the two rules of asking for the commitment.
Number one: ask an obligating question. And I've given you lots of examples about what some of those questions might be.
The second step within this concept of asking obligating question is there is a rule. It's only one rule. There are very few absolutes in selling, but this is one of them. And that is every time you ask an obligating question, be silent.
Now I know in radio land I just violated a big law by letting all that silence fill the airwaves. That was three seconds of silence. And a lot of you people out there listening were probably uncomfortable. Smitty was turning three shades of red. I did it to prove the point that after you ask the question and you practice silence. Sometimes people are going to be uncomfortable. And that's OK because what is going on in the mind of a buyer every time an obligating question is asked is they are having to decide in their own mind, "Is this something I want to do? Do I want this particular real estate space? Do I want to hire this person to be the speaker at my national conference? Is this the type of furniture that's going to fit in my house? Is this the type of automobile I want to buy for myself and my family?"
In that silence there's something that happens to everybody. Any buyer, when faced with a decision, goes temporarily insane. It happens to all of us. We all go a little bit daffy, a little bit crazy. And the reason that it's important for the salesperson to not talk after the obligating question is asked is it gives the buyer or the prospect or the client a chance to think about what it would be like to own that product or service, or to move forward along the sales process.
Don't be afraid of silence; don't be uncomfortable with it. And you know what? It's not manipulation either. There's an old saw in the sales business: ask for the order and then shut up, because the first person who talks loses.
That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about the right strategy. Ask an obligating question and then be silent, but not because you're trying to create a win/lose situation. What you're trying to do is allow the other person to think about the question that was asked and then make a decision: either yes, they're going to move forward; or no they're not; or in between which is what drives most salespeople to the point of distraction
It's not the "yes". We love "yes". It's not the "no". We can learn to love "no". It's those "maybes". I don't know; let me think about it; let me get back to you. And that is what we are trying to avoid. And the reason that we practice silence is so the person we've asked the question will make a decision.
One final point about asking obligating questions, and this is an advanced technique. And that is - it's another psychological point - and that is if we learn how to be neutral as to the outcome of every question, then we will become very strong obligating question askers. Let me repeat that. If we learn how to become neutral as to the outcome of every obligating question, we will learn to become excellent obligating question askers, because like I sale before, you can't close a sale. You can't control the outcome. But you can control your ability to ask the question.
And let me tell you something, folks. If you take this one idea and you use it in your sales business, you will be amazed. You can increase your sales by twenty, by thirty, by forty…I had one person call me that told me that their sales, once they understood this concept, went up by 70% in one quarter. You can see the power of learning how to use obligating questions as a selling advantage in your business.
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– Warren
Wechsler |
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