The Street-Smart Salesman: How Growing Up Poor Helped Make Me Rich

Chapter 17

Getting to the Truth: Asking Effective Questions

Everyone is ignorant, only on different subjects.

—Will Rogers

 

Since, in defiance of conventional selling wisdom, you're only going to be talking from 20 to 30 percent of the time, you have to make your every word count. You're going to accomplish this by asking probing but always indirect questions of your customer—questions sufficient to keep him talking and revealing the kinds of information you need to lasso him. Your humble questions and genuine curiosity should cast your customer into the role of instant guru, a person of experience and authority. Everyone welcomes that kind of validation.

Asking oblique but sincere questions not only builds trust and yields relevant information; it also shortens the overall length of the selling cycle. The sooner you put a customer's initial lie-to-the-salesman phase behind you, the closer you'll be to a deal. And the sooner you bring one deal to a conclusion, the sooner you can turn your attention to the next customer—and the next deal.

Here's my Number 1 Rule for opening up a conversation with a client: Level the playing field. Get on a first-name basis on day one. When I introduce myself to anyone, I say, “Pleased to meet you. I'm Anthony,” not, “Anthony Belli, Acme Company.” Invariably, any professional so addressed will answer with his or her first name, feeling, correctly, that it would be rude, even snobbish, to do otherwise. First names put us on equal footing, acknowledging ...