Every salesperson has their thing. Some people have a smile that charms even the most unwilling of buyers while other people have witty personalities that entertain the customer is buying. The problem is that those traits can’t be taught. You can teach someone to have a winning smile if the car salesman you’re trying to teach doesn’t smile--it would come off as not genuine. You also can’t teach someone to change their personality. They’re either a happy, smiley, or witty person, or they’re not. Some people think that only people will the cookie-cutter salesman attitude can make a good salesperson, but that’s simply not true. Anyone can make a good sales person with the right tools.

1. Make the Customer be the Hero

If you’re telling a classic story, there’s always a hero. In the story that you tell your customer, make them the hero. Don’t play out the cards as if the car you’re trying to sell is the hero that needs a sidekick. Explain to the customer why they need that car as their sidekick. You want to place emphasis on the customer and make sure that by the end of your conversation, your customer feels as if their brilliant. Any price drop that you make or any bundle that you include, make sure that it feels as if you’re only including because your customer convinced you to (even if you were going to include it anyway). If the customer feels like they’re the hero of the story, they’ll feel more confident in their decisions and be more likely to stick with their purchase.

2. Always be Closing

You want to use the ABCs constantly while you’re talking with a customer. But you want to do it without giving it away that you’re always closing them. If you use the same close over and over again, the customer will likely become annoyed with you. If you say, “Now, this vehicle comes with a full warranty if you’d like it. Would you like me to include that?” And the customer says yes, then you know that you can move on to the next step. “Great,” (never sounds overly excited), “Let’s move inside and I can show you some of the discounts I can apply for you.” Moving like that will give you a smooth transition from one close to the next without repeating yourself over and over again. By the end of your conversation with the customer, they should be ready to walk out of the dealership with a car loan, any pool loans, half a zoo, and feel satisfied with their purchase. Your closes should be so subtle and so smooth that your customer feels like pudding in your hands.

3. Find Common Ground

It is so important that you find common ground with your customer. If they don’t feel a connection with you, then they won’t buy from you. It can be that simple. The nice thing about selling cars is that it isn’t all cold calls. If someone walks into your dealership, they already know that they want a car. Your job is to show them which one. Since they’re not a cold call though, you’re convincing them less on the product and more of whether they like you. People are extremely unlikely to buy from people that they have nothing in common with or from people that they simply don’t like. If you want the sale, be likable, or the person is likely to move onto the next dealership. The best way to be liked is to find something that you both have in common. As you sit down to chat, or as you walk them around the dealership, small talk. Ask them where they grew up and act excited about the similarities that you find with them. Let them feel that you’re happy and excited to be talking with them.

If you use these three techniques, you will see sales and more profit from your work. People want to feel important (like a hero), they always need to be closed, and they need to feel like they have something in common with you. If you accomplish those, then you’ll soon be known as one of the best salesmen there are.

The automotive industry is a rewarding career path for people who love autos. If thinking about driving makes you excited and you like the idea of building a dream car, an automotive career may be in your future. The entire drive behind sales is getting people excited about stepping into that new vehicle. If they don't feel the need to re-experience the driving satisfaction when they visit an automotive dealership, chances are that they will keep searching. It is hard to make the sales if you are not excited about the product yourself. Although the automotive industry employs a wide range of people who wind up making it their career just for the pay and benefits, those who have a true passion for automobiles are sure to be satisfied with a lifelong career.

The Changing Face of Automotive Repair

Auto mechanics is no longer what it used to be. The types of problems that are being corrected are more often than not highly technical in nature and no more than 50% mechanics. This has led to a hurdle for automotive dealerships who are looking to keep the fleets of vehicles that they lease and sell in tip-top shape. In years past, many mechanics were grandfathered into the trade by starting out in more modest roles like pumping gas at a service station. Nowadays, the specialization of vehicles by manufacturers and computer trends of technology are limiting general repair to a handful of independent garages and commercial franchises. This means that auto manufacturers are willing to train and pay top salaries to qualified candidates who are both intelligent enough to understand the technology and athletic enough to do the physical labor.

The Advantages of Working at a Dealership

Dealerships work in high volume and offer numerous positions beyond automotive repair. All the positions require a dedication to learning professional skills because there is a lot of fast money on the line. Unlike houses that take months and months to build and just sit there for another century, vehicles are exposed to constant wear and tear. The quality customer service makes all the difference in the high-volume business model of dealerships. In order to retain skilled professionals for sales, management, repairs, and administrative roles, the dealerships have to offer competitive benefits, healthcare, salaries, and wages.

The Realities of Dealership Work

Not all car dealerships are created alike. Many dealerships find it hard to resist ordering high volumes of vehicles to maximize their capacities. This can result in lots that are impossible to manage and inefficient work that wastes a lot of skill. Choosing the right dealership to build your career is important. If you are work at a dealership with a congested parking lot, you may find that most of your day is wasted. Your real job description will be "lot jockey."

The better dealerships operate with a seamless workflow that allows employees to focus on improving their professions. The parts counter computer technicians retain experience to quickly locate and order the correct parts every time. The sales team is able to match customers with test-drive vehicles that fit perfectly. There is a large difference in the quality of career opportunities between congested big city dealerships and those who have opportunities for advancement.

Conclusion

If you are interested in management, sales, customer service, automotive repair, or reception, dealerships offer a wide range of positions. The 25 words of a great hire should demonstrate that they are passionate about automobiles and willing to go through the years of training to become professionals at what they do. Automobiles are the second largest single investment that the majority of Americans will make in their lives. Work experience at a dealership, therefore, offers a range of automotive-related job securities like no other trade. Learning how to repair vehicles is by far the most desirable because you have the benefit of transforming any vehicle into one of the best-kept cars on the roads.

Searching for new hires is an inevitable part of running a business, especially if it’s growing quickly, and especially when it’s a car dealership. When this time comes, it is beneficial for you as an employer to ponder about why people would want to work at your dealership. The most important question you want to ask yourself is, “what can I offer to my employees so they will want to stay for years to come?”

When you first start hiring employees, strategic action for retention needs to be taken in order to keep them productive and focused on the work. There are variety of ways that it will benefit you in the long run. These include:

• - Continually attracting high-quality employees

• - Low turnover rates (and related costs that come with high turnover rates)

• - Trust between employees and senior management

• More efficient workers

In order to maintain these benefits, you want to develop an employee benefits plan that will make your dealership attractive to applicants. Some of the most important parts of this plan include options that will ensure job satisfaction and employee engagement.

Invest In Your Employee’s Professional Development

Investing in developing a strong workforce will help you and your employees by giving them more of a reason to stay and grow with the company, as well as giving you the opportunity to educate your employees in order to promote them to higher positions in the company. This can also free up positions to be filled by new employees, this continuing the cycle that ultimately gives you the opportunity to keep hiring and retaining new employees for your company.

In order to see a high return on investment from putting money towards your employee’s professional development, you must make smart decisions so that it will be worth your while. You can do this though having your most senior level employees train those with less experience (while giving the senior level employees incentives for giving up their time), or give your employees the opportunity to be open and honest about what types of programs your company can pay for their professional development.

Give Your Employees Small Perks to Show You Care

Your employees give 40 hours (or more) of their week to your business, and if they are doing a great job, then the least you can do is show how grateful you are. This can be shown in creative ways such as office-wide contests that provide friendly competition and fun prizes. In addition, perks can include taking an employee out to lunch for their birthday, offering Fridays off during the summer, or providing breakfast in the mornings. Little things like this can be helpful in employee retention, and overall employee morale.

At the end of the day, the best way of retaining employees in your business is showing them that you care, in addition to making the realization that they are more like your family than your employees. Once this shift in thinking happens, you’ll have smarter ideas to make your employees happy, as well as building a more successful company. Keeping communication open and transparent in your company is another benefit to employee retention as well. If your employees feel that they can talk to you, they will more likely stay at your company and be more productive.  

Technology is the force that drives the development of modern society. Things that were not possible to do before were made common because of advancing technology. Take the Honda Civic 2016 as an example. It has introduced many innovative elements that were not seen in cars before. But now these car elements are commonly seen in most affordable cars. Car innovations have not stopped so here are some of the things that we may expect in the car designs of the future.

More Car Innovations

More and more car manufacturers will think of innovative technologies, not just in autonomous tech, but in other car tech as well. For example, we could expect future cars to have seating positions that can be revised where passengers can turn their seats around to be able to talk with each other face to face.

Manufacturers will also build cars with multiple displays even using the car doors for this purpose. This will induce more interaction with everything and everyone such as streaming online content and conducting social media activities, hands-free. There are also some projections that steering wheels will be experimented on with regards to what they do while the autonomous system is driving the car, and how the control can be safely returned to the driver if needed.

Autonomous Cars Are Going Up The Next Level

The driverless car has already gone up a notch. There is already a vehicle built that is capable of operating on “Level Three Autonomy” and it is now on sale. It was built by Audi which named it as Audi A8. However, in many regions of the world, its autonomous powers are deactivated because there are still no legislations that will regulate their use. But as the world gets ready for such technologies, the situation for these types of cars will vastly improve.

The speed by which technology will spur development of new autonomous car designs will only get faster. We can expect the future to see humans interacting with these emerging autonomous technologies. There will be cars that can message their environment while they are running on the streets. They can warn pedestrians or other road users of their presence or they can reverse the position of the front seats so that the passengers can face one another as the car is speeding ahead.

Electric Cars Will Go Mainstream

Electric cars will become featured products in glossy brochures of car companies instead of just the special cars that they were before. Take the example of the Mercedes EQ Concept and Volkswagen I.D. The Mercedes SUV will have overhangs that are shorter at both its rear and front ends. This design trend is reflecting the emergence of simple surfacing in the car’s flanks and no additional fussy spoilers or creases.

Meanwhile, the Volkswagen I.D. is nearly the size of the VW Golf but has a much larger interior. This is due to a change in the chassis design which took advantage of the free space that was vacated by the combustion engine. This car is has the same cabin space of the Passat saloon which is much larger. It appears that this design trend is increasingly becoming common.

Both the Mercedes SUV and the Volkswagen I.D. are very similar to their concept cars that introduced them. Considering all of the innovative features of these two car models, it is therefore understandable that those who have seen them are of the firm belief that they will give the Tesla Model 3 of Elon Musk a run for its money.

Car Displays Will Be More Dynamic

Car cabins are not exempt from disruptive technologies. Manufacturers are now spending time and effort to increase the degree of display functionalities by using fewer switches and installing more touchscreens. There will be many instances where car makers will ditch physical instruments and gauges in favor of high resolution displays.

Not many cars have these features at present. However, if it becomes popular, more and more carmakers will be forced to join the dynamic display bandwagon. This technology was already showcased by a modified Maserati at the last Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show when it displayed an amazing multi-screen display arrangement inside its cabin.

Joe strolls into the home insurance office where he works as a salesman. It is early in the morning, and he has a cup of coffee in his hand. He feels energized and ready to make some sales.

He opens up his email and starts responding to a customers question when all of a sudden the sound of the doorbell catches his attention. He looks up, a smile on his face, and greets the customer. The customer appears to be in a hurry and stressed. A few drops of sweat slide down the customer's face as he approaches Joe's desk.

Before Joe has the opportunity to open his mouth and speak, the customer erupts into an angry tirade claiming that he never agreed to the new home insurance quotes and he needs to be issued a refund.

Without losing his cool Joe tries to calm down the angry customer. He pulls up the customer's insurance account and politely tries to explain why the rates have changed. After repeating himself several times and the customer's volume only getting louder, Joe raises his voice and tells the customer nothing can be done to refund him. The customer immediately gives Joe a death stare and storms out of the building. The customer announces to the room that he will never do business with the insurance company ever again, and he will never recommend their services to his friends and family. The manager then abruptly walks out of his office with a puzzled look on his face after hearing all the commotion in the lobby and sits next to Joe in an attempt to figure out what went wrong with the customer.

How could Joe have handled the situation differently? Should he have called the manager right away? How could Joe have better helped the angry customer?

Many of us have worked a job that requires us to interact with the public on a daily basis, and its never easy. Our patience is constantly tested. But if you know what to say, when to say it, you may be better able to calm an unhappy customer.

Check out these tips to adjust your mindset so that you are always giving a work situation your undivided attention.

1) View the problem from another person's perspective

When a work situation gets heated, take a step back, breathe, and try to understand why a customer might be mad. Step into their shoes for a second. Is there a valid reason for their outburst of anger?

Tuck away feelings of this is unfair, I don't get paid enough to handle this, or the customer is giving me unfair criticism.

2) Listen first, ask questions later

Humans have two ears and one mouth for a reason. A salesperson must be an active listener at all times. Listen to what the client has to say before you make any unnecessary judgments. Sometimes the client just wants to be heard. They could provide important feedback about an internal work problem occurring within the chain of command that you were previously unaware was happening. Do not start planning out how you are going to respond while the customer is still talking.

3) Repeat the customer's concerns

Once the customer has finished their rant, repeat their concerns as you are answering their questions to ensure that you are addressing the right problem. It is okay to ask the customer questions to make sure you understood them correctly. They will appreciate it. Start your response sentences with, "correct me if I am wrong..., "If I heard you correctly..., From what I heard, you are....

4) Maintain good eye contact and body posture

When a customer is speaking to you, look them directly in the eye. Respond with head movements to show that you are actively listening to what they have to say. Sit up straight and do not slouch.

When you lose a customer, it can cost you big time. Some business insiders suggest that it costs five to ten times as much to gain a new client or customer as it does just to keep the ones you already have happy. Any kind of customer service mishap has the potential to lose you that customer.

If you’re facing a situation, where you’re about to lose an important client or customer, you’ll want to try the following steps to see if you can retain him/ her. In doing so, you’ll save yourself a ton of money and you might even have a more loyal customer to boot.

1. Keep It Simple

Groove HQ recommends that managers follow the Disney model for customer retention. It’s a simple acronym: H.E.A.R.D. It stands for hear, empathize, apologize, resolve, and diagnose. Any apology that doesn’t include these elements will ring hollow to an angry client.

When you’re dealing with a customer who is angry, it’s important that you listen to him or her and feel a measure of empathy for his/ her plight. It’s additionally important that when you apologize that you resolve the customer’s issue. The resolution may include giving the person his/ her money back or offering some sort of discount on products or services.

Finally, you need to diagnose the problem. Be sure to understand what contributed to it happening so that you can take steps so that it doesn’t happen again.

2. Take a Cue From Top Brands

But Disney isn’t the only company doing customer satisfaction the right way. According to USA Today, despite being a mass market car producer, Toyota company, maker of vehicles like Toyota Tundra and Toyota Prius, outranked Lexus and Mercedes-Benz in customer satisfaction.

Toyota accomplished this, in part, due to its attention to dependability and customer satisfaction.

Don’t be deceived into thinking that the dependability factor only applies to cars in this instance. An article on Mashable suggests that dependability is the most important aspect of customer service.

When it comes to pleasing a dissatisfied customer, your company needs to have a reputation of being dependable in this respect. People want to know that you’re going right the wrong so to speak, because you’ve made yourself accountable to them.

In this case, it’s not as if Toyota has never screwed up. The company has had its far share of mishaps and voluntary recalls. But that’s the point. The company has been dependable in it commitment to making safe cars, which in turn, helps it find favor among consumers.

If you’re looking for companies to emulate, Toyota and Disney (and other companies with similar customer satisfaction levels) are a good place to start.

3. Be Sure to Follow Up

After a bad customer encounter, you should follow up in the months following the incident. As the Groove HQ article points out, often a nearly lost customer who has been won over becomes more loyal than he/ she was to begin with.

To do this, Entrepreneur recommends that you keep post-issue follow up low key. Your initial attempts to make things right with your customer may not result in the ending you had hope for. That is to say, you may not get a big project from this client right away. However, you may be able to win some smaller projects.

It’s okay in the aftermath of an issue to send postcards or coupons to keep yourself on your client’s radar, without becoming overbearing. This lets the client know that you are making the attempt at making things right, without actually asking him/ her for anything.

Conclusion

Losing a big customer can be devastating to a business. Most business owners understand that it costs more to get a new customer than to retain the ones it already has.

Unfortunately, an angry customer can be a lost customer, unless the situation is handled correctly. Start with a simple apology and attempts to resolve the situation. If you’re not sure how to approach this aspect of customer service, look to companies that are doing it right.

Finally, in the months following the incident, use some low-key follow-up measures to get your customer back in your good graces, without being overbearing.

The US workforce seems to be struggling to tie down young, highly sought after, yet elusive employees – the millennial.

This generation of the labor force is tech savvy and not receptive of the old deal that the longer you stay, the more marketable you become. Most of these new employees only stay for a year or two before quitting, and for some time, employers thought that they were hiring the wrong people.

Reports indicate that the turnover of millennial employees costs the United States economy more $30 Billion a year. The auto industry bears the brunt of the high millennial turnover. A 2016 NADA Dealership Workforce showed a 52 percent turnover rate that year. Compare the national rate of 21 percent to that figure, and you will see why there have been complaints in the auto industry.

But all hope isn't lost yet; there are ways auto dealers can use to reverse this situation. Auto dealers don't have to keep hurting their bottom line through their failure to retain this generation of extremely talented workforce. Let's take a look at some of the strategies auto dealerships can use to attract and maintain millennial talent.

Provide A Career Vs. a Job

One of the biggest reasons an employee won't stick around a company is because they don't see a future at the company. What's the point of staying at a company where you don't see yourself advancing your career? Over the years, millennials have been portrayed as restless job hoppers, and in a bid to break up this preconceived notion, they are looking for opportunities to climb to the highest levels in their organizations.

Therefore, a good way of ensuring they stick around is to give them a true opportunity geared towards career advancement. Help them grow and save for retirement through IRA, self-directed IRA in particular. But, what are the benefits of a self directed IRA? They are multiple, for example, more flexible investment options for their retirement funds.

Get the Right Fit

Sales performance in the auto industry is determined by empathy and ego drive, the two basic qualities for the success of a good salesperson. Studies have shown that among all values, millennials value empathy the most. This generation leads an empathetic view focussing on the environment as well as social justice and responsibility. As an auto dealer, focus on tapping the potential of millennials looking to elevate their social status, for personal or ego-driven purposes. When you have the right fit, they will stay.

Pay Attention

The millennial generation accounts for 38 percent of the US workforce; they are not kids anymore. By 2025, millennials will constitute about 75 percent of the workforce. Auto dealers need to pay attention to the millennial workforce, and in addition, engage them once they're hired.

Forget About The 9 To 5 Schedule

Do you know why the Silicon Valley attracts the highest number of millennial workers in the US? Companies in the Silicon Valley are perks galore and with their casual dress codes and flexible working hours, which are millennial-friendly. Work-life balance is important to the millennial generation and will prefer to work in an environment that comes with a certain degree of flexibility.

For instance, many companies in the Silicon Valley allow their employees to individualize their schedules. You can slip out for an hour of Zumba on the workday or choose to work from home if you don't have client meetings. As an auto dealer, you may not have the luxury of matching that level of flexibility, but you can work with available options to make your dealership more attractive for millennial talent.

If your business is still relying only on traditional marketing strategies, now is the time to make the jump to digital marketing. Digital marketing is one of the most affordable, high return and measurable ways to grow your business. In today's atmosphere, it can mean the difference between profit and poverty due to the specific advantages that it offers over traditional marketing strategies. Let's get into what they are.

You Can Control Your Costs on the Fly

When you launch a newspaper, print or direct mail ad campaign, there's nothing else that you can do to control your advertising costs and return on investment. You'll have to wait on the results of your campaign and make adjustments after you spend a considerable amount of money. This is very difficult for businesses working with a small budget and the reason why it's so difficult for many businesses to make traditional marketing strategies pay off for them.

With digital marketing, you can control your costs on the fly. If your Google Adwords or Facebook advertising campaign is not performing, you can pause your campaign and prevent more of your budget from being lost. If a campaign breaks even or is slightly profitable, you can quickly optimize your campaign for better results. Making these kind of changes with traditional marketing is not as forgiving due to the costs of printing, shipping, hiring a list broker and many other factors.

It Allows You to Compete with Bigger Companies

In offline media, how much reach, visibility and impact is often determine by how much you're willing to spend. As a result, bigger companies often tend to dominate. But there are many characteristics of digital marketing that allows you to compete on a more equal playing field. Many companies that do well in the offline world are not having as much of an impact in the digital world. It's because they are not maximizing technology and cannot understand why Internet users behave differently in the online environment.

Smaller businesses are more agile and can often relate to Internet users better than big corporations. It doesn't cost a small business any more money to create outstanding content, build a large social media following and create a brand online. Platforms like blogs, social media, email marketing and apps allow small businesses to get visibility and reach without spending a fortune. It's just a matter of using the right strategy, being able to connect with your audience and carving out an identity in your market/industry.

It Allows You to Leverage Technology to Build Relationships

Speaking of blogs, social media, email and apps, these platforms are all amazing channels that allow small businesses to build relationships with their audience. By leveraging this technology, you're able to build relationships with a large amount of people with minimal marketing costs. In traditional media, many companies would use costly printed newsletters to communicate with their customers. Technology allows you to personalize your message, reach users more frequently and use data to drive your campaigns. This is relationship marketing on a whole new level.

The best example of this is email marketing. Companies can use send newsletters, links to their content and follow up campaigns to convert more leads into customers and develop strong relationships with their audience. Even better, data can be used to enhance the results of email marketing campaigns. Marketers can test which email subject lines get opened more, what days result in more opens, what kind of content people like, and more. If you're new to email marketing, here's a solid primer to get started.

These are just some of the many reasons why digital marketing can make the difference for your business. That doesn't mean you should abandon traditional marketing strategies if they're working out for you. You can use digital marketing as a means to building additional revenue streams and growing your business in a cost effective manner.

Semi autonomous cars are becoming more and more prevalent on the roadways. General Motors is leading the surge by offering a Super Cruise version of the Cadillac. The Cadillac CT6 is a new age vehicle that comes with many of the technological features that are driving the automotive industry today. The car will be introduced for a price of $71,300. The base price is $66,290. The Super Cruise option will be another $5,000. The Platinum model of the Cadillac CT6 will come standard with the Super Cruise. Other manufacturers are heavily participating in the race for releasing the ultimate semi-autonomous vehicle. Nissan plans to have a semi self driving version of the Leaf. Audi is claiming that its new A8 model is the most advanced semi-autonomous system on the market today. For the time being Cadillac has taking the helm with its Super Cruise Cadillac CT6.

New Cadillac features compete with Tesla

The Cadillac CT6 Super Cruise system differs slightly from that of the Tesla autopilot. Drivers of the Cadillac semi autonomous vehicle will not be forced to touch the wheel on occasion in order to remind the system that they are alert. The Cadillac has facial recognition software installed which is intended to determine whether or not the driver has taken their eyes off of the road. The mapping data in the Super Cruise is the foundation of how the system works. This does mean that the semi-autonomous system in the Cadillac will be limited to operation in certain areas. Highways are the primary focus for operation of the Cadillac CT6 Super Cruise system.

The CT6 has some amazing features

The Cadillac CT6 was originally unveiled by General Motors in 2015. It is the first rear-wheel-drive full-size sedan to be marketed since the Fleetwood stopped production. The CT6 also comes optional with an all wheel drive system. It has the structure and handling ability of its closest rivals the Chrysler 300 and Lincoln Town Car. The CT6 has been chosen to be the General Motors Flagship model under the Cadillac brand. The vehicle is manufactured in Detroit. The original CT6 was rolled out on March 11th 2016. It sold at an auction or $200,000.

Self-driving cars are closer than you think

The idea of self driving cars has really taking hold in the minds of manufacturers. Even non automotive corporations such as Google and Uber are trying their hand at delivering a fleet of self-driving cars. However, government regulation and unforeseen circumstances related to traffic situations has made the introduction of a fully self-driven car very difficult. Cheap auto insurance is made available for cars that meet certain standards. Leading brands such as BMW, Mercedes and Lexus are equipped with radar and cameras that assist with driver safety.

Cruise control automatic parking and automatic braking have become common in modern sedans. This is a long way from having a car that is completely self-driven. Steering assist help keep a vehicle centered on the highway within a lane. These simple features are classified as a level 2 in the categories of autonomous cars and were the first features that consumers experienced with self-driving.

There are four different levels that categorize the self-driving car

Level one is very common and has been around for quite some time.

• Cruise control is considered a level 1 option. It is it a feature that assist with driving however the motorist is in full control of the car.

• Level 2 has more attributes that assist with driving. However, it is required that the driver be prepared to take control of the vehicle at any time. This is example of the Tesla autopilot system.

• Level 3 allows the driver to take control over the car during certain circumstances. The car is actually able to drive on its own longer than a level 2 system car. However, it still requires that the motorist be prepared to take over the controls that anytime.

• Level 4 is a completely autonomously operated vehicle with no help from the driver. The Google car is an example of such a vehicle.

If your salespeople have reported back to you that they are “wasting time” in the market or have a hard time qualifying the right leads, it's time to review their question-based selling strategy. When using the questions-based approach, you should be able to successfully invite your prospects to engage with you and help you know how you can serve them best. In fact, the first few minutes when a prospect comes to you are very important and will determine whether you will convert him or her. The first of your qualifying questions will be my name is John (your name), and you are?

Some buyers will be like an open book when it comes to getting answers from them. Others, however, will shut down if you start firing questions at them. If you ask the right questions, however, you will get a lot of relevant information without offending your prospective buyers. Here are some types of questions that will save your day.

Solution Questions

Use these questions during needs assessment, which often comes after you have known that needs of your customer are bigger than for what you offer. These questions plant a seed for an alternative that you may propose later. In a way, these questions help to test the waters. By planting the seed early, you give the buyer an opportunity to consider the alternative idea without being pushed to make a decision.

A solution question should sound something like “what experience do you have with this other product? Or “have you considered...” Basically, the questions should not be leading. Otherwise, it will not yield true gut reaction.

Value Questions

Value questions are extremely useful, but sale reps often leave them out in needs assessment and preparations for negotiations. It is imperative that you, as a seller, under what matters most to your customer. Value questions seek to find out what is most important, the single greatest need, and how a given product is important to a customer. You can ask “Tell me one greatest need…”. Or "which of these products is most important…”

The answers to these questions will prepare you for later negotiations on price and terms. Also, they will enable you to invalidate objections since what is most valuable trumps everything else.

Example Questions

Use example questions to draw comparisons and paint contrasting pictures. This strategy can help make your products feel more concrete and relatable. A good example would be, “How do this year’s sales compare to your future sales? With the mental picture, include specific details that are in your own products in your response. The aim of this is to link your solution with the customer’s vision or past experience.

Rationale Questions

Be sure to ask your customer what their decision criteria would be whenever a decision is pending. And after they have made the decision, again ask what led to that decision. Knowing the answer to the questions will give you a comprehensive look into their decision-making process as well as the thought process that influenced their decision.

Armed with this information, you are better prepared to develop products that they may need in future. Even if you don’t make any sale at this particular time, you know what you need to do to improve your sales. Rationale questions also help to cause customers to stop and rethink about their decisions. It gives them an opportunity to reconsider decisions they have made in haste or that are inconsistent with their real thought processes. But be sure to avoid the word “why” in your phrasing when asking about a prospect’s decision. It's like you're questioning their judgment instead of trying to understand their thought process. So They can become defensive. You can rely on training and development opportunities to help them understand how to ask questions.

The bottom line is to ensure the aims of your question strategies is to encourage your prospects to think about what it is they want, the value they want, and the benefits they want to realize.