New Information Questions

Posted by David on March 10, 2011 under Marketing, Tools to Increase Farm Sales | Be the First to Comment

My last blog talked about confirmation questions. These are questions that open an interview. The next type of question we’ll look at is the New Information question.

This type of question enables you to get more details about the prospects required results.

In the confirmation question stage I asked the question; “You mentioned on the phone you were looking for 100 % grass fed beef, is that still the case?”

I can follow that up with a new information question such as:

“What’s happening in your current situation that you decided you wanted to talk to me about our beef?”

This gives the potential customer the opportunity to give you their reasons for wanting to talk to you. They might respond with something like ” Well we watched a documentary about how conventional beef is raised and we were shocked.”

Or, “A friend of ours recently had us over for a cook out and they served grass fed beef. We were impressed with the flavor and they told us some of the health benefits.”

These type questions are great for getting the information you need to find out what the potential customer’s reasons are for buying.

Many times you can start new information questions with who, what, when or where.

“What’s been happening…?”

“Could you…..?”

This is better than simply saying “tell me more.”

Asking questions should be natural and not feel to the prospect that it’s an interrogation. If that begins to happen then the prospect closes up and you can’t get a sale if you don’t know what result they are looking for.

That’s the old type of sales. The dog and pony show where you sit and recite all the features and benefits of your products. You wow them with how great your grass fed beef is and why they should buy it.

However, if the customer tells you what they want out of your grass fed beef and you can show them that it fits the bill…they sold themselves.

That’s a long term customer.

Depending on your sales ability, you can get a lot of sales and never get a long term customer. Pressure and talking up your products will get sales. But you should be looking for a long term relationship.

Long term relationships don’t start with one-sided conversations and pressure. They start with a two-sided conversation and agreement.

Use new information questions to help you find out what the customer requires to purchase from you.

You’ll find these customers buy again and again.

As the old saying goes:

Nobody likes to be sold, but everybody likes to buy.

Until next time…