Conclusiones

Several years ago, I coined the term “the iceberg theory of ques-tioning” to illustrate what we need to do on calls to get the best information. When you see an iceberg glistening in the water, what do you really see? You see just the tip, only a small portion of the iceberg. The bulk of it is below the water level.

The same is true when you ask a question: The first answer you hear is the tip of the iceberg. Everything below the water level is the good stuff, the information you really can use, the reason behind the initial answer. People do not buy because of the first answer they give; they buy because of the reasons behind it. The problem is that many salespeople ask the first questions and quit after they have the

tip information without bothering to ask the next question, the one that provides the information below the water level, which will tell them why, precisely, the prospect or customer says what they do.

And that’s the information we need to help them buy.

The next question is the one that many fail to ask but the one that has the greatest payoff. Remember the old detective TV show Columbo? He always asked, “One more question.” Let’s look at a sales rep who does not ask the next question.

Sales Rep: “What criteria will you use in awarding the proposal?”

Prospect: “We’re going to heavily weight the on-time delivery projections.”

Sales Rep: “Oh, let me tell you about our performance in that area.”

Instead, let’s look at the next question that lowers the water level on the iceberg:

Sales Rep: “Please tell me why that’s the most important factor, and what you’re looking for.”

In the first scenario, the rep jumped in and presented prema-turely, talking about what he wanted to discuss. And after the next question, he would probably ask a few more next questions to dig deeper, magnify the pain in the prospect’s mind, and gather better information. This would, in turn, help him make a laserlike presen-tation that would stir more emotions—and have a better chance at getting the sale.

Here’s another example: A sales rep for a human resources per-sonality assessment testing service finds out through some social engineering that the company he’s calling on wants to implement employee personality testing for new hires. In his questioning, he asks, “Why are you looking to do employee testing?”

The prospect responds, “We feel that we need to do a better job of screening our applicants so that we don’t make hiring mistakes.”

The sales rep—who has been selling this service for several years and feels he has been there and done that—thinks he has a grasp on the situation and begins a presentation on the testing service.

The prospect responds by saying, “Okay, that sounds interesting.

Send me out whatever information you have, and we’ll give it some consideration.”

The sales rep complies. He schedules a follow-up for seven days later. He keeps getting voice mail on repeated attempts, with no return calls from the prospect. The cycle continues. And oh, by the way, this experienced sales rep has a problem with lots of prospects in his pipeline and complains about prospects not buying and how he can’t reach them.

Let’s look at another sales rep who knows how to lower the water level and learn more of the reasons behind what people say.

Prospect: “We feel that we need to do a better job of screening our applicants so we that don’t make hiring mistakes.”

Sales Rep: “Tell me more.”

Prospect: “Well, we’ve hired a few people over the past year that just didn’t work out. They seemed good in the initial interviews, but apparently we were missing something.”

Sales Rep: “What do you mean?”

Prospect: “They were able to talk a good game, but when it came time to actually do the work, they lacked what it took.”

Sales Rep: “That’s not uncommon. What does it take to do well at your organization?”

Prospect: “We need people in our customer service positions who can handle repetitive tasks all day long without becoming bored, remain calm under pressure from irate callers, and be able to think quickly on their feet to resolve problems that involve some math calculations.”

Sales Rep: “I believe we can help you with that. Tell me a bit more about your past experiences. About how many people have you hired that didn’t work out?”

Prospect: “Almost embarrassed to say. . . probably 10 out of 20.”

Sales Rep: ”Wow. Any idea of what it costs to hire and train someone for that position?”

Prospect: “I hate to even think about it. After newspaper advertising, our interviewing, two weeks of product training and their wages, it’s got to be a few thousand dollars per person.

As you saw, the sales rep pretty much got out of the prospect’s way as he replied to the prospect’s statements with the next question each time, continuing to lower the water level on the iceberg.

Keep your prospects talking about their needs, desires, and con-cerns; you want the real reasons behind their initial answers to sur-face. The first important step in achieving this is discipline. Resist the tendency to jump in and present; instead, use instructional state-ments such as:

“Tell me more.”

“Please go on.”

“Elaborate on that for me please.”

“I’d like to know more about that.”

“Please continue.”

And when they touch on a need, embellish it; quantify it, and have them discuss its implications (particularly the financial ones).

Smart Calling Tip

One of the greatest questions of all time—one that can give you more information than you ever thought possible—is just two letters: “Oh?”