Are Questions Only An Excuse To Tee Up Your Pitch?

The cold call started pretty well. Someone called, he had a good
premise for the sales call, he had done his homework, he asked a
question.......That's where it went terribly off course. I had barely
begun my response when he interrupted, "Our company is involved in
those areas as well, this is what we do.....""Hold on," I
sputtered,"...and we have a lot of experience in working with
companies like yours....." he went on."But, but....." I tried to
interrupt."....I really think you will like what we do, here's
why...." he continued.Normally, at this point I would hang up, but I
decided to let it go on (Disclosure time, as you know these calls are
great fodder for blog posts). I put the call on the speakerphone and
read a few emails."Well what do you think, when do you want to get
together and talk about how we can help your company?" he finished his
pitch.I realized this was the time for audience participation, "Thanks
for telling me about what you do, I didn't get to finish answering
your question, the area you asked about is really not a high priority
for us.... I don't see how you can help us." I stated."But, but....."
sputtered the sales guy.Well you can guess where it went from there.
This call wasn't unusual, sales people just can't wait to launch into
their pitch. Truth be told, questions are really a bother, they slow
sales people down, all that's needed is the key word-that set's sales
people off, then it's time to pitch. Their ears are tuned to this
word, then they go.Too often, doesn't it seem like sales people ask
questions, but don't really care about the answer, they are just
looking for an excuse to start their pitch. They ask questions because
they know sales people are supposed to ask questions (but they don't
understand why). Here are some of the cues:1. They don't listen to the
answer.
2. They don't probe and follow up. They don't drill down to
understand, they jump to something else.
3. They don't push back and
challenge to better understand.
4. They don't try to understand the
impact of the issue, quantify or qualify it.
5. They seem more worried
about the next question than understanding what you are trying to
say.
6. They interrupt and start talking about their product.
7. They
don't play back your response to verify their understanding.
8. They
don't explore options or alternatives.
9. They don't ask how you feel
about what's happening.
10. They don't know enough about your
business, your customers, your industry, your competition to explore
impacts on what you are trying to do.
11. They don't take notes and
refer back to them in the conversation. (Or they are playing
tic-tac-toe on their note pad as you speak-Yes, that has
happened.)
12. At the end, they don't ask, "Is there anything else
that we should understand?"
13. In presenting their solution, they
don't tie it directly back to the issues and priorities you raised.
They leave it to you to connect the dots.Yes, questions do tee up our
presentation of a solution. But only after we thoroughly understand
what the customer is trying to achieve. We need to ask questions,
listen, probe, understand, question more. We need to really understand
their problems, needs goals, we need to understand what the customer
values. It's great to understand how they will select a solution, who
else they are considering, how they will fund the solution. There is
so much to understand and discover.Questions are about discovery and
learning. We can only execute a winning strategy in responding to what
we have learned from the customer in a way that creates superior
value.