Are you asking yourself the right questions?
Tim Connor, CSP & Mike Hourigan CSP
In life, if you fail to ask yourself the right questions you may find you are living a disappointing life. In sales, it is equally important to ask yourself the right questions to improve your performance, results and ultimately your income.
Asking yourself specific thought-provoking questions and providing the difficult answers is a great way to fine tune your performance. The self-knowledge gained by answering these self probing questions gives you the blueprint for maximizing your effectiveness.
The key to effective prospecting is the ability to ask the right questions, in the right way, at the right time and in the right order. For personal and career development this skill is just as critical. To discover a prospect's real buying motive or roadblocks, you need to ask targeted questions. If you hope to discover your own true strengths and weaknesses, be willing to identify your blind spots and don’t forget to illuminate your strengths. In addition to correcting weaknesses, big improvements can also be made with minor tweaking of your strengths.
Here are a few questions to get you started:
- What is the one area of the sales process I need to improve the most, i.e. prospecting, presentations, time management etc? Why?
2. What one habit may be sabotaging my sales success?
3. If I could start your sales career over again, knowing what you know now,
what would you do differently? Why?
4. What strength can I improve with minimal effort? How?
5. Do you spend regular time each week in self-improvement activities? If
yes, what? If no, why not?
6. Where or how do you tend to waste the most time each week?
All of the successful people we know, regardless of their career position or tenure, have formed the habit of asking themselves the right questions or hired a personal coach to help them through this often difficult yet necessary process. You cannot become successful in anything unless you are willing to grow, learn and change. The right questions help you change for the right reasons and in the right way to accelerate your career. After you answer the questions start with an easy improvement and build on your success. Don’t let your answers disillusion you because just by completing the questions, you have already made a significant advance towards sales success.
