Are you trying to improve your sales skills? Open-ended questions can help. Open-ended questions are designed to start a dialogue with customers, prompting them to communicate their needs and concerns to you. Here are some major advantages of using open-ended questions to improve your sales.
What are open-ended questions in sales?
An open-ended question is something that doesn’t have a simple, direct answer. Rather than asking, “Did you have a good morning?” you instead ask “What have you been up to this morning?” In sales, open-ended questions work well because they get the client talking, and they start building a rapport with them. The more a client talks, the more likely they are to make a purchase.
You can collect a lot of information about someone’s values, personality, and needs when asking open-ended questions. When asking open-ended questions, you’ll be able to drill down to what your client needs from you, and what will make them more willing to convert. You’ll find out more about their current business challenges, and how your product can help them.
What to do when asking good open-ended sales questions?
Asking a good open-ended sales question isn’t simple. Open-ended sales questions have to come naturally, and they can’t feel like an interrogation. Here are a few standard best practices:
- Be as authentic and genuine as possible.
- Don’t try to put your own words in their mouth.
- Don’t stick to a script.
- Listen rather than talking.
If you can meet these requirements, you can start a real, deep conversation. From there, you and your potential client can work together to find out more about how your product can address their needs.
What not to do when asking open-ended sales questions?
Since asking an open-ended question doesn’t come naturally to many sales professionals, it’s easy to fumble with them at first. There are a few things you don’t want to do when asking open-ended questions:
- Respond in a bland or abrupt way.
- Speak too much about your own opinions.
- Rush your client through their answer.
- Fail to listen to the client.
Asking open-ended questions means that you also need to be ready to listen to the answer. At this stage, you can’t be primed to sell at every turn: you’re trying to establish a relationship.
What are the questions you shouldn’t ask?
There are some questions that just come off too sales-y and too direct. These questions need to be avoided if you don’t want to create a negative relationship with your customer.
- How do you think our product can help you? This implies that you haven’t looked into the customer enough to know whether your product can benefit them, and it makes you seem unprepared. You want to be confident that your product will help them, and that you know how it will help them.
- What’s your budget? Asking your client what their budget is puts them on the spot, and it also means that they’re going to put an upper limit that they’re not going to want to exceed. Don’t ask your client about their budget at this stage.
- What do you dislike about our product? When clients talk about what they dislike about you, they’re going to reaffirm that idea in their head. You want the conversation about your product to be as positive as possible, as these thoughts will linger.
Avoid negativity, and avoid anything that could potentially dissuade a client from committing.
False open-ended questions
There are some questions that seem open-ended but really aren’t. You should avoid false open-ended questions because they tend to bring a conversation screeching to a halt. Some examples of false open-ended questions include:
An example of a false open-ended question is, “Have you thought more about my proposal?” This sounds like a request to elaborate, but the question can be answered with a “yes” or a “no.” Anything that can be answered with a word or a few words isn’t really an open-ended question at all.
Best 25 open-ended sales questions
So now that we’ve talked about what open-ended sales questions are, what are some of the best open-ended sales questions to ask?
- How’d your weekend go?
- What’s your background in the industry?
- What do you want to do when you retire?
- What do you like doing in your spare time?
- How is your business doing?
- How would you define your company’s values?
- What issues are you experiencing with your business today?
- What would you like to talk about today?
- How are you being impacted by the current economy?
- What do you feel is holding your business back?
- Do you have any questions for me?
- What would you like to happen for your company?
- What do you feel your competition is doing that you aren’t?
- What does success look like to you?
- What are your goals for your role within the company?
- How are decisions made within your business?
- How do you manage your business processes?
- What would make you more interested in these solutions?
- Have you been looking into other solutions?
- Do like the solutions that you already have?
- What do you want to achieve by seeking out these solutions?
- How would establishing a new solution impact your day-to-day work?
- Could you elaborate on something you said earlier?
- What did you mean when you said something earlier?
- Is there anything I have said that I could clarify?
As you can see, it’s a mix of personal and business-related questions, meant to develop a rapport. Naturally, you wouldn’t ask all these questions in a single conversation: you’d try your best to pepper in an assortment of them during a talk.
Good questions – good sales
Good questions will eventually lead to better rates of sales. The more you can keep your customer engaged and talking, the more likely they are to be interested. It’s all about building trust and building the relationship.
Open-ended questions tell you much more about a customer, and keep the conversation going. But it’s a skill and an art, and it may take some time before you’re able to make conversations flow naturally.
Are you trying to improve your sales skills? Open-ended questions can help. Open-ended questions are designed to start a dialogue with customers, prompting them to communicate their needs and concerns to you. Here are some major advantages of using open-ended questions to improve your sales.
What are open-ended questions in sales?
An open-ended question is something that doesn’t have a simple, direct answer. Rather than asking, “Did you have a good morning?” you instead ask “What have you been up to this morning?” In sales, open-ended questions work well because they get the client talking, and they start building a rapport with them. The more a client talks, the more likely they are to make a purchase.
You can collect a lot of information about someone’s values, personality, and needs when asking open-ended questions. When asking open-ended questions, you’ll be able to drill down to what your client needs from you, and what will make them more willing to convert. You’ll find out more about their current business challenges, and how your product can help them.
What to do when asking good open-ended sales questions?
Asking a good open-ended sales question isn’t simple. Open-ended sales questions have to come naturally, and they can’t feel like an interrogation. Here are a few standard best practices:
• Be as authentic and genuine as possible.
• Don’t try to put your own words in their mouth.
• Don’t stick to a script.
• Listen rather than talking.
If you can meet these requirements, you can start a real, deep conversation. From there, you and your potential client can work together to find out more about how your product can address their needs.
What not to do when asking open-ended sales questions?
Since asking an open-ended question doesn’t come naturally to many sales professionals, it’s easy to fumble with them at first. There are a few things you don’t want to do when asking open-ended questions:
• Respond in a bland or abrupt way.
• Speak too much about your own opinions.
• Rush your client through their answer.
• Fail to listen to the client.
Asking open-ended questions means that you also need to be ready to listen to the answer. At this stage, you can’t be primed to sell at every turn: you’re trying to establish a relationship.
What are the questions you shouldn’t ask?
There are some questions that just come off too sales-y and too direct. These questions need to be avoided if you don’t want to create a negative relationship with your customer.
• How do you think our product can help you? This implies that you haven’t looked into the customer enough to know whether your product can benefit them, and it makes you seem unprepared. You want to be confident that your product will help them, and that you know how it will help them.
• What’s your budget? Asking your client what their budget is puts them on the spot, and it also means that they’re going to put an upper limit that they’re not going to want to exceed. Don’t ask your client about their budget at this stage.
• What do you dislike about our product? When clients talk about what they dislike about you, they’re going to reaffirm that idea in their head. You want the conversation about your product to be as positive as possible, as these thoughts will linger.
Avoid negativity, and avoid anything that could potentially dissuade a client from committing.
False open-ended questions
There are some questions that seem open-ended but really aren’t. You should avoid false open-ended questions because they tend to bring a conversation screeching to a halt. Some examples of false open-ended questions include:
An example of a false open-ended question is, “Have you thought more about my proposal?” This sounds like a request to elaborate, but the question can be answered with a “yes” or a “no.” Anything that can be answered with a word or a few words isn’t really an open-ended question at all.
Best 25 open-ended sales questions
So now that we’ve talked about what open-ended sales questions are, what are some of the best open-ended sales questions to ask?
1. How’d your weekend go?
2. What’s your background in the industry?
3. What do you want to do when you retire?
4. What do you like doing in your spare time?
5. How is your business doing?
6. How would you define your company’s values?
7. What issues are you experiencing with your business today?
8. What would you like to talk about today?
9. How are you being impacted by the current economy?
10. What do you feel is holding your business back?
11. Do you have any questions for me?
12. What would you like to happen for your company?
13. What do you feel your competition is doing that you aren’t?
14. What does success look like to you?
15. What are your goals for your role within the company?
16. How are decisions made within your business?
17. How do you manage your business processes?
18. What would make you more interested in these solutions?
19. Have you been looking into other solutions?
20. Do like the solutions that you already have?
21. What do you want to achieve by seeking out these solutions?
22. How would establishing a new solution impact your day-to-day work?
23. Could you elaborate on something you said earlier?
24. What did you mean when you said something earlier?
25. Is there anything I have said that I could clarify?
As you can see, it’s a mix of personal and business-related questions, meant to develop a rapport. Naturally, you wouldn’t ask all these questions in a single conversation: you’d try your best to pepper in an assortment of them during a talk.
Good questions – good sales
Good questions will eventually lead to better rates of sales. The more you can keep your customer engaged and talking, the more likely they are to be interested. It’s all about building trust and building the relationship.
Open-ended questions tell you much more about a customer, and keep the conversation going. But it’s a skill and an art, and it may take some time before you’re able to make conversations flow naturally.