Using The Titan Principle TM

Do your customers perceive you as a valuable resource? Establishing this early in the relationship earns you their time, interest, and attention. However, salespeople often ask initial questions that don't support that all-important goal.

The Titan alternative to the traditional sales interview is:

• Issues-based questions
• Illustrative questions
• Clarification questions
• Consequence questions

Issues-based questions focus on finding out where the other person is trying to go. People love to talk about that! Issue-based questions sound like this: "What are the three improvements you're most interested in achieving for your organization as a result of the training program?"

Prospects are highly motivated to answer intelligent issues-based questions. Aren’t we all in a hurry to get to where we're not? Issues-based questions shows your interest in their goals, demonstrating you're capable of "being there" to turn those goals into realities. That's Step One in positioning yourself as an invaluable resource.

The responses to these questions will center on these four elements: improved profits, improved productivity, reduced costs, and increased competitive edge.

To verify you get all the necessary information is critical to your success ask illustrative, clarification and consequence questions. These create a clearer vision of what your customer is facing, and the value proposition necessary to help achieve key goals.

THE ILLUSTRATIVE QUESTION

The illustrative question encourages the prospect to "paint a picture" for you. It's a request for an expansion on a recently raised topic.

If you are selling retirement investments funds, the illustrative question might be: "Please describe a typical day in your ideal retirement scenario."

You're encouraging the prospect to illustrate the "big idea" he or she is talking about. The clearer that picture is for you, the better off you both are.

THE CLARIFICATION QUESTION

With the clarification question, you're asking the customer to provide workable, in-depth definitions of a specific phrase that's important to him or her: "How would you define quality in your terms?

One person's definition of a word like "quality" could be very different than somebody else's. When people use words, they aren't thinking about the dictionary definitions of the words. They are drawing on their biases and experiences.

If someone says, "I need quality," and you answer "Okay, let me show you how we can give you quality," there's a problem. You're offering a solution with out knowing what the other person is talking about. Instead ask a clarification question - "When you say ‘quality,’ what does that word mean to you?"

THE CONSEQUENCE QUESTION

The consequence question sets you up for the value proposition. It's the key question for introducing positive change.

The consequence question highlights the consequence of your prospect's doing nothing and ignoring the resources you offer. If there are no consequences to doing nothing and staying with the status quo -- why would anyone change?

The more compelling the consequences you build up, the easier to demonstrate that the cost of staying is going to be greater than the cost of the change you're identifying. If you can ask consequence questions that "hit 'em where they live"- you will get the business!

Consequence questions can’t stand alone. They certainly can't be the first questions you ask a prospect or customer. They have to be preceded by the other questions. Whether you as a clarification, illustration, or consequence questions depends on the situation, the concerns of the other person, and your sense of how the sales interview is unfolding.

Here are two examples of effective consequence questions:

What will happen if you do not find a way to reduce your customer hold time from 24 minutes to 2 minutes?

"Mr. Customer, what's really at issue here, cutting your costs by 17% or saving as much money as possible? By working with us at our current pricing and utilizing all of our services including our national computer system, we can cut your costs significantly more than 17%. Here are the statistics to prove it."

This article is excerpted from Karr’s Titan Principle™- The Number One Secret to Sales Success. Ron Karr is a professional speaker, consultant, trainer and author who specializes in helping organizations to dominate their marketplace and assisting individuals to get closer to the people they serve. Ron’s Titan Principle™ has generated tremendous results for his clients in the areas of sales, negotiations and customer service. Call 800-423-5277, fax 201- 461-5621, or visit Ron’s website, http://www.ronkarr.com, for information on results-oriented services and learning tools (including his books, The Titan Principle™-The Number One Secret to Sales Success and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Great Customer Service).