How to secure more sales is one of the most popular questions when businesses are looking at increasing profit and growth.

Often business owners come up against opposition to sales within their team, with comments like ” I am not a sales person / I don’t know how to talk to sales / I can’t sell”

So how about we make sales VERY simple. Firstly, we look at sales mindset and changing the beliefs you have around sales.

Sales is just about asking the right questions, at the right time, to the right person. By asking open ended questions, you can take a prospective client through a ‘sales funnel’ which will allow you to find out the most crucial part of any sales conversation – what’s important to them.

Here’s 16 open ended sales probing questions to boost your sales conversions:

  1. What’s your biggest challenge in your business at the moment?
  2. How long has been an issue for you?
  3. How does it impact you and your role?
  4. What would be your ideal solution?
  5. How would you feel if that ideal solution was in place?
  6. What difference would it make to you as an individual and your role?
  7. What gives you joy in what you do / what your company does?
  8. What’s the reason you have agreed to meet today?
  9. What would be your ideal outcome from our conversation today?
  10. Who is the audience you are trying to reach?
  11. What do you think keeps them away at night in terms of their business?
  12. What solutions have you tried before?
  13. How did that solution work out for you?
  14. What assurances do you need from me to make a decision?
  15. How often do you review your budgets for this activity?
  16. How does our solution / package / product / service fit with what you had in mind?

Remember to always ask open ended questions and to listen twice as often as you speak!

Once your customer asks a question – it is a buying signal and an opportunity to temperature check.