Someone asked me recently about my philosophy of sales training. At its most basic level, I believe sales training is about helping sales reps develop an understanding of their customer’s needs so that they can effectively present a solution. What is your customer trying to achieve? What are they doing now? What’s working well? Where can they do better? As a sales rep, the more you know about your customer, the better your position.

The challenge is that sometimes reps go into sales calls armed with a list of questions and the sales call starts to feel more like an investigation. Questions are good – but let’s focus on asking the right questions.

There are two types of questions that sales reps should be using on sales calls – those that are factual and those that are contextual. For example, let’s say I am an inside sales rep in the travel industry where I work with many different partners to put together detailed travel itineraries for my customers. My factual questions are going to nail down things like the number of people travelling, their desired location/dates and their budget. I might also ask if there is anything in particular they want to do/see while travelling. This is where the vast majority of sales reps stop. Once they get the facts, it’s their turn to offer up options to their customers.

What might happen if this sales rep further asked contextual questions that explored things like what is the reason for the holiday, what types of experiences do they want to have while there, what would make their trip truly memorable? See the difference?

Good sales reps ask contextual questions that enable them to not just present a solution but paint a picture for the customer as to how they are going to be able to benefit from their solution. With the right questions, the inside sales rep in the travel industry would be able to offer far more than just airline and hotel arrangements for their customer – they could organize incredible experiences that would get the customer excited about the trip before it even begins.

Sales is not just about asking questions – it’s about asking the right questions. As a sales rep, remember to get more than just the facts. Get some context and paint a picture for your customer.

#salestraining #needsanalysis #needsassessment