In sales, what's your biggest competitor?
Okay, the headline spoils what otherwise would’ve been a mysterious opener. But yes, as the headline so loudly proclaims, studies show it’s “no decision.”
Meaning, the biggest reason a sale doesn’t close isn’t that the prospect went with someone else. Instead, it’s that they went with no one at all, and stuck with what they are already doing.
Why? It’s scary to buy something new. There’s risk, and most people in most jobs are risk-averse. Especially when that risk is on a third-party product or service they aren’t quite sure about.
Why asking the right questions can help you negate a “no decision.”
There are a few ways to combat a “no decision.” One of the most effective – asking the right questions, according to sales expert James Bloomfield.
Why are questions effective? Because, instead of you trying to explain to the prospect the cost of doing nothing, by asking the right questions, your prospect is effectively explaining to themselves the cost of doing nothing.
That’s far more powerful, Bloomfield said.
Pro tip: Go beyond just uncovering pain in your questions – i.e. our servers are too slow, our systems could be better. Get to the implications of that pain – our slow systems are causing us to churn customers at a 10% higher rate; our systems are making us 20% less efficient.
Questions that help prospects quantify the implications of their problem.
There are two types of questions that can help the prospect center on the costs of doing nothing, and therefore create urgency within them to buy, Bloomfield said. The first is helping your prospect quantify the implications of their problem.
Specific questions here are dependent on the situation. But it comes down to having your prospect describe the financial and other consequences of maintaining the status quo.
An example – you sell a marketing solution. Your prospect's pain might be that they reach a limited amount of people. Ask what the implications are of not fixing it – their growth will slow, competitors will gain share, they'll miss opportunities, etc.
These implications help your prospect feel the urgency of doing nothing. And that'll motivate them far more to fix it – hopefully by investing in your solution.
“A prospect isn't looking for solutions unless they perceive a tangible, concrete problem that needs to be solved,” Bloomfield said in his LinkedIn Learning course, Asking Great Sales Questions. “By validating the impact of the problem, and quantifying the cost to the prospect, you elevate the urgency in their mind to solve it.”
Questions that help prospects personalize the implications of their problem.
Quantifying the implications of a problem is great. But you can take your case to the next level by asking questions that personalize the implications of doing nothing to your prospect.
“Your customer's brain will engage at twice the urgency to avoid a loss than it will to pursue a gain,” Bloomfield said in his course. “Therefore, it's important that you have the skill to ask effective questions to help the customer understand the impact a particular problem has on them personally, not just at an organizational level.”
The process starts with uncovering what matters most to your prospect with the right questions, to understand what they most want to avoid. Next is confirming with them how their challenge relates to that fate, which effectively personalizes the problem for your buyer.
Bloomfield gave the example of selling health insurance to an HR leader. In your discovery, you find that the HR leader is looking to avoid high turnover and a bad culture, as both of those reflect poorly on her personally.
With that information, realize you are no longer selling health insurance – you are selling a better culture. Because the better the company's health insurance, the stronger the culture (and, conversely, the worse the insurance, the worse the culture).
This gives the HR leader a personal reason to buy – to avoid the fate she least wants, a bad culture. And that’s a more powerful force than even quantifiable metrics.
The takeaway: Your words won’t help a prospect overcome “no decision.” It needs to come from them.
Here’s the bigger point Bloomfield is making – you are very unlikely to convince a prospect of the implications of doing nothing.
Instead, you need them to define the implications of doing nothing. And that’s best done with the right questions that shape those implications in their own mind.
What if there aren't drastic implications of doing nothing? Perhaps your offering isn’t right for them, and “no decision” is actually the best decision. In that way, you are still serving your prospect.
More times than not though, if a prospect is talking with you, they have a challenge your solution can potentially fix. Ask the right questions to get them to understand the quantifiable and personal implications of not solving it – that’ll create urgency within them to invest in a solution.
Don’t make a “no decision.” Subscribe to our blog newsletter today and get the latest sales insights sent to your email every Tuesday.
Topics: Modern selling
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