Thinking And Questioning Your Way To Sales Success
For a sales professional, there are two basic sets of questions with which a dedicated sales person should gain competence: Questions to ask prospects and customers; and questions to ask yourself.
Questions we ask ourselves are just as important, if not more so, than those we ask our prospects and customer. The reason goes back to the ultimate power of a question it directs our thinking. Just as a good question directs the customers thinking, so, too, does a good question direct our own thinking. And thinking well is the ultimate success skill for a professional sales person.
Some years ago I was interviewing a group of sales people for a consulting project in which I was engaged. One of the sales people, upon reflection, said, Ive come to realize that sales is really a thinking persons game.
I couldnt agree more. Ultimately, the way you bring greater results into your organization, make an outstanding career for yourself, and provide more abundantly for your family is by outthinking your peers and your competitors. Thinking good thinking done with discipline and methodology is the ultimate competitive skill.
Yet, few sales people, and few people in general, regularly engage in good thinking. As the philosopher, Bertrand Russell said, Most people would rather die than think. In fact, they do.
This chapter is not designed to be the final word on how sales people could think more effectively (thats the next book!). However, there are some easily applied rules, processes and practices that will enable you to think better and dramatically impact your performance.
Lets start with a simple definition of good thinking for a sales person: Good thinking is asking yourself the right questions, in the right sequence, at the right times, and writing down the answers.
It sounds so simple, and it is. The power, like so much else in the world of the sales person, is in the excellent and disciplined execution. The rest of this chapter is going to discuss what it means to ask yourself the right questions, in the right sequence, at the right times but at this point I want to make the case for writing down the answers.
Writing down, either on a computer or handwriting on a pad of paper, is one of the disciplines of good thinking. The very act of writing focuses you on the exact words which formulate your answers. While you can be vague and indistinct as long as the answer is just something you maintain in your mind, when you force yourself to write the answers down you must select the exact words that go on paper. Thus writing is a discipline that forces you to think precisely one of the tenants of good thinking.
Secondly, putting it in print is an act of commitment. Once youve written the answer, it is there for you to review forever.
Not only does it serve as a commitment after all, you wrote it but also as a reminder that you have already gone down this path before and come up with an answer. When you confront the question that prompted that answer again, youll save time by referring to your previous work.
So, if you are going to think well, youll write the answers to your questions down on paper.
Questions we ask ourselves are just as important, if not more so, than those we ask our prospects and customer. The reason goes back to the ultimate power of a question it directs our thinking. Just as a good question directs the customers thinking, so, too, does a good question direct our own thinking. And thinking well is the ultimate success skill for a professional sales person.
Some years ago I was interviewing a group of sales people for a consulting project in which I was engaged. One of the sales people, upon reflection, said, Ive come to realize that sales is really a thinking persons game.
I couldnt agree more. Ultimately, the way you bring greater results into your organization, make an outstanding career for yourself, and provide more abundantly for your family is by outthinking your peers and your competitors. Thinking good thinking done with discipline and methodology is the ultimate competitive skill.
Yet, few sales people, and few people in general, regularly engage in good thinking. As the philosopher, Bertrand Russell said, Most people would rather die than think. In fact, they do.
This chapter is not designed to be the final word on how sales people could think more effectively (thats the next book!). However, there are some easily applied rules, processes and practices that will enable you to think better and dramatically impact your performance.
Lets start with a simple definition of good thinking for a sales person: Good thinking is asking yourself the right questions, in the right sequence, at the right times, and writing down the answers.
It sounds so simple, and it is. The power, like so much else in the world of the sales person, is in the excellent and disciplined execution. The rest of this chapter is going to discuss what it means to ask yourself the right questions, in the right sequence, at the right times but at this point I want to make the case for writing down the answers.
Writing down, either on a computer or handwriting on a pad of paper, is one of the disciplines of good thinking. The very act of writing focuses you on the exact words which formulate your answers. While you can be vague and indistinct as long as the answer is just something you maintain in your mind, when you force yourself to write the answers down you must select the exact words that go on paper. Thus writing is a discipline that forces you to think precisely one of the tenants of good thinking.
Secondly, putting it in print is an act of commitment. Once youve written the answer, it is there for you to review forever.
Not only does it serve as a commitment after all, you wrote it but also as a reminder that you have already gone down this path before and come up with an answer. When you confront the question that prompted that answer again, youll save time by referring to your previous work.
So, if you are going to think well, youll write the answers to your questions down on paper.