Sometimes I help small business owners sharpen up their sales conversation – how they talk with their prospective clients. Talking with prospects about their current problems and how you might help them is known as having a sales conversation. It’s not pushy or salesy, it’s an inquiry into where they are, where you are, and if there is a match.
Many times when I ask one of my own clients to practice their sales conversation with me, I hear a series of questions they ask their prospect. Here’s one question I recommend
you never ask at all either in your sales conversation or in your website copy.
Ready? Here it is. “Are you committed and motivated to your success?”
Sometimes, I’ll hear something like, “Are you a stay at home mom who wants a home-based business and is committed to making this a success?” Dumb question! Never ask that question!
Do you really expect someone to answer you in the negative? Do you sincerely believe that your prospective client is going to answer you by saying, “No, I’m not committed to my own success.” Or “Heck no, I’m not motivated to succeed.”
Asking “are you committed and motivated to your success” is a throw-away question. No one is going to say no. If you ask 100 people “are you committed and motivated to your own success” out on any street corner, 100 out of 100 will say “yes.” No one will admit that they are not, even if their behaviors are not aligned with success. It’s a non-question and you’re not going to get any useful, true information when you ask it. It’s a total waste of time.
In sales we talk about “what is the pain point your prospective client is having.” No prospective client is going to say to you, “My pain point is that I am not committed and motivated to my success. Can you help me with that?”
To reframe this question into one that gives you useful information, think about what the RESULTS of not being committed or motivated to success are. Things like:
- Spending time and money to establish a business, but not having enough paying clients
- Working a day job because one isn’t making enough money in one’s business
- Saying “I want to lose weight” but eating dessert every day
You could probably think of more ways to re-frame the dumb question into one that asks about specific results. In other words, ask questions in your sales conversation that leads to the pain point. What would make a prospective client actually pull out their wallet?
If you need help in crafting a sales conversation, you can check out my e-book “How to Have a Sales Conversation That Works.”
To read more about sales conversation you can check out my blog post “Are You Serving a Lot of People But Not Making Money?“
Great post Sue! A great reminder of what we ask for questions of potential clients is so important in order for us to be more effective in securing clients. I enjoy your writing!
Yep, Good job ~ I am of the opinion that actions speak much louder than the answer to the above question 🙂
LOVE this! You are so right that it is a dumb question! Thanks for the suggestions to make it, well, smarter!
You’re welcome, Kristin. 🙂
You make an excellent point that the questions during the sales conversation should yield useful information. Thanks Sue!
Yes, Aimee – useful for your prospect and for you, too.
Great advice, Sue. Your post was a good reminder to focus on the needs of your customer and craft the questions to their needs.
Thanks, Susan. Crafting questions around their perceived needs and confirming that is really key.
Sue, great post. You bring up a good point that we should tie the conversations to specific results.
Thanks, Chris. Yes. Prospective clients want to be assured of specific results. And so do we!