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The other day, my wife decided she needed a digital camera. I decided to go with her on her shopping trip. I was surprised by what we heard.

We walked into the camera store and I’ve got to confess that I didn’t expect the buying experience to be as great as it was…

We walked into our local Wolf Camera and the camera salesguy asked, “How may I help you?” He didn’t ask, “What can I do?” or “What are you looking for?” That was an instant sign that he was a professional. No “yes” or “no” answers for him!

He found out she was interested in a camera and then – this was the greatest thing he could have possibly done – he asked, “before I make a recommendation, may I ask you a couple of questions to make sure that I show you the right camera?”

Of course, she said, “Yes.”

“What are you going to be using it for?”

“How often will you be traveling with it?”

“How much experience do you have with a digital camera?”

He must have asked 8 or 10 questions like those before recommending a camera. The one he said would best suit her needs was probably a couple hundred dollars more than she expected to spend, but because it was the right one for what she said she needed, it was the one she walked out of the store with. See, find out what your customer wants, and recommend the solution that meets their needs. If you do, they’ll move heaven and earth to get it!

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Several weeks ago, I was entered as a contestant in the Auto Fair in Charlotte, NC, a semi-annual car show that has become one of the premier auto shows in the Southeast. Participation is by invitation only, usually sent out first to car clubs, with the number of entries based upon past participation. This year our PT Cruisers club earned 27 slots.

Photo of Richard’s Car

As is customary, different clubs are asked to “judge” other clubs, using subjective criteria and some formal criteria. Our club could not find any other club to judge. Since we were allocated 5 trophies for 5 categories, we wanted to find judges. After several minutes, someone suggested that I use my sales and sales training background to “find” judges. I accepted the challenge. We persuaded attendees walking by the cars to share their feelings. We did this by selling the benefits of having their opinions.

I approached attendees, introduced myself, and asked if I could ask them some questions about their experiences and perceptions about our cars. Most were delighted and eager to share. I then asked if they would record their feelings. Most were thrilled to express their views. In fact, we had 100 completed ballots for 5 categories for our cars, and were able to award all our trophies to our club. We used a very simple, fundamental process….asking people to buy, rather than telling them what to do.

How many of us in sales have ever “told” people what they should do or “sold” what we had, rather than asking what they needed or wanted? We asked them to “buy in” to providing feedback which is the essence of successful selling. Even at a car show!

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Asking your prospect questions about their use of your product or service is maybe one of the most important parts of the sales process.

Even when you’ve got cool, innovative, time saving advances in technology, you need to know how the customer is – or even will – use them.

Whirlpool’s smart appliances sound like a sure thing but the company is smart enough to test (read: question) the marketplace about using them before they go off and launch a full line of products no one wants.

That would be like a salesperson going into a sales call touting their product’s benefits that don’t apply to the prospect’s needs. And that happens far too often. It’s a mistake that is entirely avoidable if you just ask questions.

Too often salespeople tell prospects about the benefits and features they think are important or that other customers like – the risk is glossing over the single most important benefit to the prospect that’s in front of you.

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