Traditional sales training teaches techniques focus on how to eliminate stalls and objections.

Some are fancy sales moves, while others are programmed responses. Sales is a conversation, and I don’t know how you can memorize every possible response for every sales situation. Also, the prospect has usually heard these responses before, and has been turned off by some fancy sales move.

When you really think about it, the only person qualified to address the stall or objection is the prospect. The role of a professional salesperson is to help the prospect identify and eliminate stalls and objections by asking the right questions at the right time.

So what are the right questions? Typically they revolve around three themes:

• learning more about the prospect’s view of their problem,
• the budget available, and
  
• their decision-making process.
  

You might ask your prospect, “How long has this been an issue for you? So what have you done to try to solve the problem? And how did that work?” Asking them about their history in dealing with the problem can identify approaches they believe are not going to be feasible for them. This will keep you from getting boxed in with the wrong prescription for that prospect.

To find out what sort of budget is available, you might ask “Have you thought about how much you’d need to budget for resolving this problem? Could you share with me in round numbers what you were hoping this might cost.”

Most people are offended by direct questions about budgets, like “What’s your budget for this.” But they will be happy to share their resources when you prompt them in a cooperative and non-threatening manner.

Talking to your prospect about their decision-making process before you present your proposal is crucial. Too often, we propose a solution to the wrong person in the organization, then rely on them to sell it up the chain for us. Simply asking “How would you go about making the decision to move forward?” can uncover plenty of potential speed bumps. 

Ask the prospect how they would resolve their speed bumps before you propose, and you’d be surprised at how many stalls and objections can be eliminated before they even surface.

Joe Marr is a public speaker, sales and management consultant and trainer, and runs Sandler Training - Ann Arbor. Contact him at (734) 821-4830 or visit his website.