By Ignite Excellence

FEATURE ARTICLE: To Be or Not To Be? Now There's a Question That Needs Work!

I was recently in the field observing a Sales Representative's interactions with his prospect. He asked the question "What do you know about our company?" The prospect paused, shifted in his seat and responded with "Why don't you tell me about your company?"

Sales Reps often ask prospects, "What do you know about us?" and no doubt are received with the same cool response. This question is very presumptuous and places pressure on the prospect to have knowledge about your business, when technically it is the sales persons' job to have conducted their due diligence about the prospect's company and create a need for their offering.

Questions are the doorway to good conversations, and ultimately understanding how people buy. If you can understand your buyer, you are in a much better position to state your offering in a way that would be appetizing to your prospects and clients. You always want to ask questions from your prospects' perspective, their perception and understanding. This makes the question personal to the individual, and by framing the question from their perspective, the expectation of your level of knowledge is relinquished you don't know as much as you should about their industry or their circumstances.

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