Why Do You Ask?
Tweet

March 24, 2012

We are all consumers, and we all have our own individual buying motives.  Think about the last time you made a significant purchase…

• Why did you decide to make the purchase?
• What questions did you ask during the purchase process?
• Why did you ask those questions?

Of the 3 questions above, the one missed most often by sellers is the last one: Why did you ask those questions? 

From the minute we are born and throughout our education, we are trained to respond to questions with an answer.  In sales, we need to break this habit.  We need to learn to dig deeper into what our customer is really asking and avoid any assumptions.

When a customer asks a question, it’s for a reason.  For example, if a customer asks:

• What is your repair process?

We can ASSUME a million reasons why the customer asked that questions, but regardless of our knowledge and experience, we will never know the true motives until we uncover it.  They could be asking because they had a problem with their previous company, or they may have liked what they had and don’t want a drastic change.  Until the prospect comes out and tells us their intentions, we can never be completely sure.  When building value with a customer, understanding “why” can be far more powerful than the content of their question. 

Buyers will go with whoever makes them feel most comfortable about their purchase.  Almost every buyer is naturally skeptical, and each one will have their own reservations sitting in the back of their mind.  We can do an outstanding job at answering a prospect’s direct questions and think that we are giving them exactly what we are looking for, but if we don’t take the time to find out why those questions may be important and what’s really on their mind, we risk losing the sale to the unknown.

Tweet