How To Ask Sales Questions for Account Executive & Business & Sales Development

Summary

In this video, Patrick Dang delves into the art of asking intelligent sales questions that not only elicit informative responses but also guide the conversation towards a favorable outcome. By using a simple three-step framework, salespeople can transform their approach and create meaningful exchanges with prospects. The video outlines the importance of making observations, sharing perspectives, and then framing questions to genuinely understand and address the needs of potential clients, ultimately leading to more effective sales interactions.

Highlights

• Asking intelligent questions is vital for sales, keeping you at 20% talking and 80% listening. 🎙️
• Patrick shares a three-step method to ask meaningful sales questions: Observation, Perspective, and Question. 🤔
• This strategy helps prevent prospects from clamming up and encourages them to share more information. 🗝️
• Using relevant statistics or observations sets the stage for insightful questions that engage the prospective client. 💬
• Framing questions assists in gently steering the conversation in the desired direction. 🚀

Key Takeaways

• Sales success is more about listening than talking; aim for 80% listening and 20% talking. 🎧
• The three-step question framework involves Observation, Perspective, and the final Question. 📊
• Crafting your questions this way avoids awkward one-word answers and opens up the conversation. 🗣️
• Using observations or statistics relevant to your prospect primes them for deeper engagement. 📈
• Framing questions smartly helps in steering the conversation and guiding the prospect's thinking. 🧠

Overview

Patrick Dang introduces a game-changing approach to sales questioning that flips the traditional talking points. He emphasizes on the power of listening more and speaking less to delve into what truly matters to prospects. By mastering the art of asking intelligent questions, salespeople can better connect with clients and uncover the underlying needs of their business.

The core of Patrick's method lies in a simple yet effective three-step framework: Observation, Perspective, and the pivotal Question. The first step involves making an observation or sharing a statistic relevant to the prospect’s context, which smoothly sets up the conversation. The subsequent Perspective step adds depth, linking the observation to a broader industry insight or challenge, making the dialogue more relatable and grounded.

Concluding this framework with a well-crafted Question opens up the dialogue to more meaningful discussions, moving beyond superficial answers. This method not only primes the prospect's mindset but also subtly guides them towards recognizing the value of your offering. By asking smartly framed questions, sales professionals can influence the direction of the conversation, making it easier to later align the product or service with the prospect's needs.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction to Intelligent Sales Questions In this introduction, Patrick Dang emphasizes the importance of asking intelligent questions in sales. He highlights the ideal communication ratio, where salespeople should listen 80% of the time and talk only 20%. The challenge many face is how to ask questions that engage prospects without causing them to shut down with minimal or one-word responses. Patrick aims to share his most effective and simple method for asking such questions.
• 01:00 - 03:00: The Three-Step Framework The chapter introduces a framework for asking intelligent questions, presented as a three-step method. The initial step of the framework involves making an observation or sharing something relevant. The content promises to empower viewers to ask insightful questions effectively.
• 03:00 - 05:00: Step 1: Observation In Step 1: Observation, the focus is on the idea that observation involves noticing what is happening in a situation or identifying relevant statistics from research, which can be valuable for prospects. The chapter gives an example related to selling digital marketing services to a dental office, emphasizing the importance of observing market trends or statistics that could appeal to potential clients.
• 05:00 - 07:00: Step 2: Perspective In this chapter, the shift from traditional print and mail marketing to digital strategies is discussed. The chapter emphasizes the importance of not just observing this trend, but also providing a personal perspective or opinion on what it signifies and its relevance to potential clients. This approach involves explaining what the observation means for the prospect and why it holds significance within the context of selling digital marketing services.
• 07:00 - 09:00: Step 3: Asking Intelligent Questions This chapter focuses on the importance of asking intelligent questions in the context of marketing for dental offices. It begins with observing industry trends, such as the shift from traditional print and mail marketing to digital platforms. The text highlights the challenges many face in adopting digital marketing strategies like Google marketing, SEO, and Facebook advertising. The emphasis is on using a perspective-driven approach to identify and address these challenges.
• 09:00 - 11:00: Using the Framework Throughout Sales Conversations The chapter discusses the shift from traditional to digital methods in sales conversations and highlights the challenges people face during this transition. It emphasizes the importance of using a structured framework in sales discussions, particularly focusing on how to effectively set up conversations. The first step involves observing this shift and preparing to ask intelligent questions to guide the conversation forward.
• 11:00 - 13:00: Conclusion and Free Training Offer The chapter titled 'Conclusion and Free Training Offer' focuses on the importance of asking smart questions and setting up context for effective inquiry. The process is broken down into steps that start from a thorough observation, developing a perspective, and then formulating a question. It uses an example from the dental industry, where a transition from traditional mail marketing to digital approaches raises challenges, particularly due to the complexity of learning Google tools. The chapter emphasizes understanding this change and adapting smart marketing strategies.

How To Ask Sales Questions for Account Executive & Business & Sales Development Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hey everybody what's going on it's Patrick dang here now when it comes to sales of course you're gonna be asking a lot of questions after all sales people should be talking 20% of the time and listening 80% of the time but the big question that a lot of salespeople have is how exactly did you ask these intelligent questions and a lot of times when you ask these questions your prospects my clam up they don't want to tell you anything or maybe they'll give you one word answers so in this video what I want to do is I want to share my most effective way and simple way to ask
• 00:30 - 01:00 intelligent questions so if you're ready to get started with this video make sure you give it a like subscribe if you haven't already and turn on the notification in Bell all right so let's go ahead and dive right in so this is gonna be my framework when it comes to asking intelligent questions and it's a three-step framework so let's go ahead and do that so here's exactly how you're gonna ask your intelligent question using three simple steps now the first set that we're gonna have is making an observation or sharing a
• 01:00 - 01:30 statistic so let's go ahead and write that down number one observation so what does that mean exactly so in any type of situation you can observe what's going on around you or maybe you might find some type of statistic from a research paper and it might be relevant for your prospect so I'm going to go ahead and give you an example of an observation or statistics so I could say something like this if I were selling let's say digital marketing services to a dental office and I would say to the dental office hey I noticed a lot of dental offices in the
• 01:30 - 02:00 area are starting to move away from traditional print and mail marketing and they're moving to digital write so that's simply an observation I didn't get my opinion about it it's really just stating a fact or something that is happening in the world now it's gonna set up for step number two which is your perspective now once you give this observation you want to then give your perspective or opinion on what this observation means and why it's important for your prospect so in the example where I am selling digital marketing
• 02:00 - 02:30 services to a dental office I can say something like alright let's start with the observation first now I'll just go straight into the perspective and that's like I said before I said hey I noticed that a lot of dental offices in the area are moving away from traditional print and mail marketing and they're going digital now I've noticed based on the people that I work with in what I see in the industry is that a lot of people have trouble when it comes to learning how to do google marketing search engine optimization and Facebook advertising it's a perspective right so the
• 02:30 - 03:00 observation is that people are going from traditional to digital the perspective that I'm sharing is that people who are trying to do this are failing because it's so difficult to handle now that's gonna set up for the third step of the intelligent question is that's where I'm gonna ask my question okay so this is gonna be importance because now you're setting up the conversation so the step number one
• 03:00 - 03:30 and step number two the only goal of that is to set things up so that you can ask a really smart question so let me go ahead and share how all this works from one to three start to finish right and you're gonna see the difference between that versus if I just asked a simple question by itself so let's go observation perspective question I noticed that a lot of dental offices are moving away from traditional printed mail marketing in their going digital now I notice that a lot of people in the industry even though they want to make this change it can be very difficult because it's really hard to learn Google
• 03:30 - 04:00 ads and Facebook ads especially if you're trying to figure it out by yourself now I'm curious to know from your perspective if this was something you were trying to do or I even curious to know how exactly you're handling your marketing today right so in this when I asked the question in this way I basically set it up I let the person know that everyone's going digital right and that person I'm talking to might be thinking the exact same thing I also gave my perspective that people who are going digital usually have trouble and if that prospect has trouble going digital they're starting to resonate and
• 04:00 - 04:30 really care about what I'm starting to say so when I asked the question how exactly are you handling your marketing now they might say oh I tried digital before but it didn't work and here's what I did and that and you start diving into the conversation now this is really important because you're framing the prospect you're getting them primed to realize that traditional printed mail is not the way to go and they gotta go digital and you're doing this without even telling them anything you're not forcing any type of idea on them you're asking this question to get them to
• 04:30 - 05:00 think and that's why it's called an intelligent question because you're getting someone to think about what they want in their business and you're getting them to see how exactly you might be able to help them before you even start selling and that's gonna be a huge difference between just asking a question right so imagine if I met a prospect like let's say a dental office and I just said hey how are you handling your marketing and they might just say like through traditional printed mail why right and it doesn't really lead the conversation anywhere because it's not a very smart question you're just like trying to pry information but if you use
• 05:00 - 05:30 these three simple steps the observation or statistic perspective and then the question you really frame your customer to go in the direction you want the conversation to go and sales is a game really it's all about control it's understanding exactly how to guide the customer slowly I bet effectively into the direction you want them to go so that in the end eventually it's gonna be very obvious that they should buy your product or service but you want to make sure you ask these questions right especially the first question you ask because that's
• 05:30 - 06:00 gonna set the tone for the rest of the conversation now what's gonna happen throughout the entire sales conversation do you have a prospect well it doesn't just end with the first question every question that you ask you could theoretically use this intelligent question framework to ask and tell those many questions right you don't have to stop in the beginning you could say in the middle and also at the end you don't always have to use this framework every single time you ask a question but it really does frame your customer to think in a certain way that is more favorable to help you sell your products and
• 06:00 - 06:30 services so that's said that's pretty much how you are going to ask your intelligent questions using my three-step process if you like this video go ahead and give this video a like subscribe if you haven't already and make sure you turn on that notification belt because I'm gonna be dropping new videos every single week now if you're looking to really take your sales game to the next level and learn how you can sell anything to anybody I actually created a free and depth training that you can take advantage of right now all you gotta do is click the link in the description and it's gonna take you to the next page to sign up for that free
• 06:30 - 07:00 training so with that said my name is Patrick ding and I'm gonna see you guys in the next one