The New Model of Selling by Jerry Acuff

Author:Jerry Acuff [Jerry Acuff, Jeremy Miner]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
Published: 2023-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Sequence of Questions

Solutions come through evolution. They come through asking the right questions because the answers pre-exist. It is the questions that we must define and discover. You don’t invent the answer—you reveal the answer.

—Jonas Salk

OK, so you know how to speak. You understand how to listen. You may think you’re ready to bust out of the gate but hold your horses for a second. As George Bernard Shaw, famously said, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” Do you know the exact questions you should be asking? And do you know how to ask those questions?

The truth is, you can be a great communicator, but if you don’t know what to ask, you’re only going to hold your audience for so long unless you’re Barbara Walters, who used to ask her celebrity interviewees what kind of trees they identified with. That kept our interest because it was such a bizarro question you had to stick around to hear the answer. In sales, however, skip the sequoias and go straight for the sequence. The sequence of questions we provide creates a logical and coherent structure you and your sales team can use to generate meaningful dialogue.

For example, in the traditional version of the sequence of questions, the salesperson only has to identify a possible customer, determine whether they’re qualified, make the pitch, close the sale, and provide ongoing support. At each step in the process, the salesperson knows exactly what needs to be done next.

But let’s not get ahead of the process. Before we tell you what questions to ask, you need to know how to create a powerful opening using some of our previously shared methods. We’ve discovered how to take the concepts and ideas we have—the quintessential way to think like a customer—and break down the sales process to get the customer to do their own thinking.

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