The Question Edge in Sales Interviews

by Miller Heiman

We define four distinct types of questions that should be asked in every sales interview. Each type has its own distinctive purpose. Each is designed to elicit a unique and specific type of information to give you an edge. They are phased in specific manners using distinctive key words. And, as you put these four types of questions together into an effective interviewing process, you also need to give some attention to their sequence.

1. Confirmation questions

These are questions that validate your data or point out inaccuracy in what you thought was true. Confirmation questions have a dual purpose. They help you verify information you already have—or think you have—and they help you reveal inaccuracies you may not have identified before.

2. New information questions

These are questions that force you to listen and accept the reality of current data. They also tell you the explicit business results that your customer expects. The purpose of new information questions is three-fold: to update your information, to resolve your information discrepancies by filling in the gaps, and to get the customer to give you more detail about his or her required results.

New information questions often begin with the key words who, what, when, where and how. Such as, “Where will the new plant be sited?” “What would be the benefit of replacing your old system?”

You use a new information question when you discover you are missing specific information regarding the current status of the sale.

3. Attitude questions

These are questions that identify the customer’s personal needs, values and attitudes, and thus the urgency that he feels about meeting his needs. Many traditionally trained salesmen and saleswomen are resistant to asking attitude questions because they believe that what the client feels is none of their business, or is irrelevant to the sale. Many of them take Jack Webb’s old line, “Just the facts Ma’am”. Big mistake. In today’s selling there’s not a single fact that is more important than what your customer is feeling personally, about what you are trying to sell him. Attitude questions surface gaps in your information about the one thing that drives the sale—the client’s mental picture of what buying from you can do for him. Remember, if the results define what he buys, values and attitude define why. You use an attitude question whenever you need a better understanding of how your customer feels about your being there, and what your trying to sell him. Attitude questions also help you determine what is behind the results the given customer wants—or says he wants. Different customers will want the same results for different reasons, and this means that everyone’s concept of the result you can deliver is going to be different.

4. Commitment questions

These are questions that help you locate your current position in the sale. When we speak about “commitment”, we do not mean simply the final step in the sale, the signing of the order. Getting the order is part of the commitment, and “asking for the order” is part of getting commitment. But it’s an error to think that it’s the only part—or believe that it’s the most important part. In a good selling process, the salesperson should move the sale closer to the ultimate win-win commitment in a series of graduated steps. Getting the order is only the last step—you can not make this happen unless you have gone through the previous steps. The purpose of a commitment question, as we define it, is to tell you exactly at what level you are, at a given point in the sales process, and at the same time to make it possible for you to move to the next higher level. It gives information and tells you how far away you are from the close. And last, but certainly not least, it tells you what is blocking your forward progress.

Commitment questions can be used at any point during the sales call where the salesperson is uncertain about the current level of commitment, or unsure what progress has already been made in getting concurrence for his or her proposal.

Guidelines for checking your questions

Once you’ve identified the questions you need to ask in the sales interview, check them against the following guidelines for their effectiveness.

For every confirmation question: Is this question phrased to help me verify (validate or invalidate) the date I already have?

For every new information question: Is this question designed to help me update my information, fill in the gaps, resolve discrepancies, and/or get information about my customer’s results?

For every attitude question: Is this question likely to give me information about The personal values, attitudes, needs and opinions regarding my current proposals?

For every commitment question: Will this question tell me exactly where I am in the selling process, and what still needs to be done to move me and this person towards the close?

Mutual commitment

The bottom line is mutual commitment. That’s why we stress the need to get the client to do something. Obviously, there is going to be plenty for you, the seller, to do too, but you already know that. And by virtue of the fact that you’re working towards them, you have committed yourself to doing it. What you don’t know is whether or not your customer is also committed to carrying the buy/sell process forward. Asking for his involvement in the next step is one way of testing that commitment, and to do this properly you have to be very concrete. What you want from your customer is a promise to do something specific that moves the buying process forward.

Article Credit Reprinted with permission from the Selling Advantage, Volume 2, Issue 43.

Miller Heiman is a Nevada-based Corporation that helps businesses develop sales processes. You can reach Miller Heiman, Inc. by calling (800) 526-6400 or visit our micro site at www.millerheiman.com/Siebel_Project/index_mhi_micro.htm for more information about our products and services.