8 questions SMEs must answer to help sales teams ace their game

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Scaling up remains a challenge for all businesses, whether it is startup or an established business. My friend Hayagreeva Huggy Rao has written a bestseller on the subject with a colleague from Stanford (Sutton) based on their research with a lot of client companies.

Scaling up is tricky, especially for salespeople looking to gain new customers. Here is a list of issues to your sales team needs to address to expand customer base, a perennial need of small and medium of enterprises (SMEs):

1 Are your salespeople talking too much and listening less? Salespeople who are too focused on their pitch end up talking too much. As a result, for every 60 minutes spent with a prospect, only five are spent selling the product and 55 minutes saying things that may be about buying it back. The result? No order, cancelled order, or "I'll think it over".

The 80/20 rule applies to selling as well. The goal should be to get the prospect to do 80 percent of the talking. The trick is training them well. Use outside consultants to get this right.

2 Are your salespeople behaving as if selling is like begging? Salespeople fail often to think of their time with a prospect during an interview to find out if the prospect qualifies to do business with their company. Instead of asking questions that will determine if the prospect can be moved to the level of a customer, they often find themselves hoping, wishing, and even begging for the opportunity to "just show what I have". They forget that questions are the instrument to conduct a qualifying examination of the prospect.

3 Are your salespeople answering questions that are not even asked? When a customer says something like, "your price is too high," salespeople often get defensive. They begin a lengthy speech on quality or value or may respond with a concession or discount. If customers can get a discount by merely making a statement, they will think they should not buy before bargaining harder for an even better price. "Your price is too high" is not a question; it does not require an answer.

4 Are your salespeople making too many presumptions? Increasingly companies are in the business of providing solutions and not products.  This is fine except that salespeople try to tell the prospect the solution before they even understand the problem. The salesperson must ask questions upfront to understand of the prospect's perspective instead of assuming something.

5 Are your salespeople failing to gauge prospect's willingness to purchase before making a presentation? Salespeople jump too easily at any opportunity by pitching their product or service. They forget their goal—to make a sale— and end up merely educating their prospects. Yes, presentations may be necessary but should be planned carefully. Make your salespeople do prior study of the prospect and then decide.

6 Are your salespeople failing to get the prospect to reveal their budget upfront? How can the salesperson possibly propose a solution without knowing the prospect's problem? Knowing whether money has been allocated for a project can help distinguish someone who is ready to solve a problem from someone who is merely fishing. The money that a prospect is willing to invest to solve a problem will help determine whether a solution is feasible.

7 Are your salespeople happy to hear "I want to think it over" rather than "No"? Prospects frequently end a sales interview with the standard "think it over" line. The salesperson accepts this since it offers hope than a firm no. It is easier to tell a manager or convince yourself that the prospect may buy in the future than to admit that the prospect is not the candidate for the product or service. A "no" is preferable, since it allows them to work on other promising prospects.

8 Are your salespeople making too many follow-up calls? It could be because of their stubborn belief that every prospect can be turned into a customer or ignorance that a sale is dead, salespeople sometimes spend too much time chasing accounts that do not qualify for a product or service. I am sure all of us have experienced this. Need to check on this from time to time.

I have been talking to trainers and consultants in the sales and customer service business and I am amazed by the number of prospects that tell me they feel heard for the first time. Clients want to know that we get it, we understand their needs, expectations and concerns when doing business with them.