I’ve been in sales in one form or another my entire career.

One of the most common questions successful salespeople hear is along the lines of, “What is the secret to successful selling?”

Most answers are some variation of ‘hard work’, ‘persistence’, ‘it’s a numbers game’, etc.

My response is a little different — ‘you have to ask the tough questions’.

Of course, people then ask ‘what are the tough questions’?

The answer to that is simple. A tough question is any question to which you don’t want to hear the answer.

In sales the hardest question any salesperson asks is the one to which the potential client will say “no.”

It’s what’s called a “closing question” and it can take place anytime after the first hello.

Salespeople often avoid closing questions to keep the discussion going, kidding themselves and their boss into thinking it’s a live one.

A no means having to make more cold calls to refill the pipeline whereas it’s more comfortable to avoid the no and believe they can rejuvenate a deal with additional contacts.

More subtly, salespeople (like the rest of us mortals) want to be liked.

By asking the question that will either take the deal to the next level or end it, the salesperson is risking not being liked any more, i.e., rejected, AKA, no.

Tough questions permeate not just sales, but hiring, product/software development and all parts of life.

The trick is realizing that the faster you ask them the faster you will hear ‘no’ and the faster you can move on to something more positive.

Flickr image credit: Valerie Everett

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2014 at 1:15 am and is filed under Communication, Hiring, Personal Growth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Tags: sales, success
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