Using Next Level Power Questions At Events To Boost New Business

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A short time ago, I wrote about how my kids have Jedi-like qualities when it comes to asking for what they want. While I don’t fold as easily as a storm-trooper granting Luke and Obi Wan passage, the process often leaves me just as befuddled. Perhaps it’s because of the relentless, tireless line of questioning, but when they’re peppering me with ongoing, open-ended questions, I can feel my resistance draining. It’s not a negative thing, mind you, but quite the opposite: I feel proud of their ability to keep their eyes on the prize and not back down.

In the previous post, I wrote about the value of power (open-ended) questions in getting the information we need to help move the sales process forward. Power questions help us uncover needs, potential objections and perhaps most importantly, entice the prospect’s involvement in the dialogue. As any marketing or business development professional will attest, your odds of winning new business increase exponentially when the other party is actively participating. If he/she just sits there, arms folded and uttering an occasional grunt to let you know they’re still alive (but not for long), then you’re doomed. We can do better.

Knowing what to ask and when to ask it can be challenging for anyone in marketing and business development. Timing is everything. Since situations vary, it makes sense to have a plan for the different environments in which we meet and engage with prospects (and clients for that matter). Being prepared is a key success factor. Can you remember anyone going into a test, meeting or anything without preparing, and doing well? Yeah, me neither.

Conferences, seminars and networking events are prime opportunities to meet prospects and clients (along with bringing home suitcases full of swag). If your company taps you for this assignment, prepare. Aside from watching a YouTube tutorial on how to fold a suit for travel without destroying it, take the time to come up with what I call next-level questions to ask prospects during the event.

At some point, you’ll end up mingling with other attendees during a cocktail hour or dinner event. For purposes of this post, I’m using a financial services conference setting, though these questions are easily adaptable to other industries. People like to talk about themselves, so your job is to ask questions that encourage them to open up. After the typical greeting, you can create a meaningful interaction by asking questions following a logical progression. Four types of next-level power questions include:

Introductory Question

1. What is your role, and what are your primary responsibilities?

(Don’t settle for just learning someone’s name and title. This question gives them the opportunity to tell you about themselves.)

2. What’s been your experience with systems like Advent, Portia or DST?

(Insert whatever system or process is relevant to you and your company’s products/services. Again, get them talking.)

3. In what ways have client or regulatory initiatives impacted your firm?

 

General Follow-Up Questions

1. How does your firm choose a software provider?

2. What key projects is your firm considering?

3. What do you look for when implementing a software solution?

 

Functional Follow-Up Questions

1. To what extent is cost-basis accounting a key service offering?

2. What have you found to be the most challenging aspect of implementing performance systems?

3. In what ways are digital strategies impacting projects?

 

Transition Questions

1. What makes your company choose one product over another?

2. Why are those the deciding factors?

3. Who is involved in the decision-making process?

 

By no means is this meant to be a complete list. Each situation we encounter is different, and as marketing and business development professionals, we have to adjust accordingly. Being able to adjust on the fly requires preparation. In the above conference example, do your homework BEFORE you to the event. Knowing who will be there and obtaining relevant key information about these people is a powerful ally in achieving success with business development. How so? Read on.

A few years ago, while in a Marketing & Business Development capacity for a company, I attended a conference in Las Vegas. Before the event, I used a list of expected attendees to group clients and prospects by the type of service and revenue tier. With this list in hand, I gathered information on each person from our CRM system to build a prospect profile. To complete the competitive profile, I researched each person outside of our CRM system to find interesting tidbits that I hoped would enrich conversations.

For one attendee in particular, I learned that she was actively involved in many conversation efforts, including one whose goal was saving tigers. Knowing this, I sought her out during the event, since my company was also heavily involved in conservation initiatives. I was hopeful that this would encourage a productive dialogue since we had shared interests. We crossed paths, and I talked to her about my company’s conservation programs and asked about hers. I had several “Next Level” power questions ready, and these, combined with my research, moved the conversation forward. This opened a larger dialogue about my company that ultimately led to new business and revenue.

Time to level up!

How To Use Power Questions To Boost New Business

Image by Kathy Cassidy on flickr

 

 

 

 

 

Why?

As a parent, I’ve heard this simple, yet powerful, question countless times from my three kids. It’s effective as it forces me to answer, lest they continue to barrage me with follow-up “Why” questions. I have to give more than a “Yes” or “No” response. I also have to provide information explaining my answer. Whether it’s the answer they want or not, my kids will continue to probe. They want to uncover my real objection or position, so they can try to overcome it or change my views. It’s no wonder that the axiom, “Kids make the best salespeople” is not just a catchy phrase, it’s also completely true. My kids, like so many others, are master intelligence operatives.

The same principles hold true in business. Questions are used to obtain critical information to learn what to do, how to do it, when to do it and most importantly, why to do it. Whether it’s acquiring another company, considering enterprise software updates or crafting the company’s long-term strategy, questions play a key role in a company’s ongoing viability.

The right questions get us the information we need to make smart decisions and plot the course forward. This is especially true for marketing and business development professionals. Uncovering prospect needs is a key success factor in the sales process. When you don’t ask the types of questions that elicit the right answers (information), it’s difficult to create value for the prospect. If you can’t demonstrate value, the risk of not getting the sale increases. As I summarized in a previous post discussing the concept of selling Benefits vs. Features, Value = New Business.

Finding value when conversing with prospects is about asking the right types of questions. Closed-end questions that allow prospect to answer with “Yes” or “No” won’t cut it. Open-end questions (also known as “power questions”) are thought provoking and result in key details that facilitate the sales process. One important, albeit basic, thing to remember: when you’ve asked a power question, stop talking, listen and take notes. This does two things: (1) shows the other party that you’re actually interested in what they have to say and (2) helps you remember important details later.

To get the information you need to build value and new business, ask power questions that:

1. Make them think before responding. Like the above example with my kids, when you ask questions that don’t encourage only “Yes” or “No” answers, you’ll obtain the information you need.

2. Qualify needs. If you can’t uncover a prospect’s needs, it’ll be hard to create value that entices them to move forward.

3. Compels your client or prospect to consider new information. By making them evaluate other details (downstream impacts, other possible stakeholders, etc.), you’re demonstrating value…the kind that comes from experience.

4. Focus on personal and company goals. One of the best ways to add value is by helping the decision maker, and their company, meet goals.

5. Distance your company from the competition, not tie them together through comparison. Power questions allow you to cleverly highlight how your products and services add value by identifying their unique value, while indirectly illustrating the competition’s shortcomings.

6. Touch on improved operating efficiency, productivity, revenue and cost savings. Asking power questions with this focus will allow you to simultaneously uncover needs and the product or service benefits (not features) they’ll find most valuable.

While there are countless examples of power questions that should be asked, for the sake of brevity, I’ll focus on a few. An important note: ask questions from a positive perspective.

For example, don’t ask something like, “What don’t you like about …”.

Reframe it as, “What would you change about…?”.

The first question will only elicit a negative reply. However, the second example prompts the other person to think about how they’d change things for the better. It’s a slight difference in wording, but a powerful difference in the tone and result.

Below are examples of a few power questions you can ask (and a few non-power questions that you shouldn’t ask). I have the financial services industry in mind for my sample questions, though as you can see, they are easily adaptable to other industries.

Ask This: To what extent is outsourcing a part of your company’s business model?

Not This: Does your firm do any outsourcing?

 

Ask This: What’s been your experience with accounting platforms like (insert service provider names)?

Not This: What accounting platforms do you currently use?

 

Ask This: How does your firm determine which trading or reporting systems to use?

Not This: Do you use (insert service provider)?

 

Ask This: What is one thing you’d change about previous system implementations?

Not This: Are you satisfied with previous system implementations?

 

Ask This: What have you found to be the most challenging aspect of a new product or software implementation?

Not This: What usually goes wrong during an implementation?

 

Ask This: To what extent does a new client improve profitability?

Not This: Is a new client worth a lot to your company?

 

Ask This: In what ways have regulatory or client initiatives influenced project decision-making?

Not This: Do business needs change project decision-making?

 

Ask This: What makes your firm choose one product over another?

Not This: What would it take to get your business?

 

Ask This: How will the decision be made?

Not This: Are you the person that makes the decision?

In the movie, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, Indiana Jones is told by a centuries-old knight to choose the cup from which he will drink water from the fountain of youth. After a brief, but harried deliberation, Indy chooses a cup and gulps down the water. The Knight looks at him and says, “You have chosen…wisely.” The same applies to the questions you ask client and prospects.

Ask (wisely) and you shall receive.

Why Your Company Should Use Case Studies to Shift Sales Into High Gear

Case studies have long been a marketing tool used by consulting firms to demonstrate value. However, any company that sells products or services can leverage case studies to drive sales with new clients and increase sales from existing clients.

Regardless, they are a powerful tool in the sales process and companies from all industries should use them to drive business. There are several key reasons case studies can help your company drive sales and should be part of your sales arsenal. Before discussing these key attributes, let’s review the proper format.

Navigating Case Study Format 

1. Background/Challenge

This section describes a client’s pain point (s) that your company’s products/services helped overcome. Demonstrating an understanding of specific pain points will resonate far more with prospects than simply saying, “We understand your issue with ‘X’”.

Think about it this way: would you rather see a doctor that has an understanding and experience treating your specific medical ailment or one that doesn’t?

2. Diagnosis/Solution

Once a company has hired your firm, or purchased one of its products or services, the real work begins. From start to finish, whether for a quick one-day installation of carpet or a multi-year implementation of a data, trading and reporting system for a financial services firm, establishing a good working relationship with your client’s staff is a critical success factor.

A compelling case study will show your prospect several things: an ability to work with people and teams, analyze problems and craft realistic solutions. The Diagnosis/Solution section demonstrates your company’s ability to help prospects navigate through change of varying complexity. Given the detail necessary to provide a sufficient description of your company’s involvement, this component of a case study should be the longest.

3. Results/Impact

This is where the rubber meets the road.

Companies buy products and services or hire other firms to produce tangible results. For some, the goal is improving operating efficiency; for others, driving top-line growth is the desired outcome. Either way, if your firm has helped clients achieve their objectives, then this is where you describe those results.

The Results/Impact section should include a brief summary of the background and teamwork components, and conclude with the tangible results your company delivered. Numbers speak more loudly than words, so quantify results wherever possible.

• Did your client’s sales increase? If so, by what percentage?
• Were you able to help them reduce errors, or improve productivity?

These are tangible results and, quite often, clients will be happy to share this information – if you ask. With this in hand, you can draft a robust and compelling Results/Impact section that illustrates your company’s value proposition.

Having covered the format of a case study, let’s look at why case studies are such a powerful weapon in a company’s sales arsenal.

How Case Studies Can Accelerate Sales

1. Proof of Concept

‘Been there, done that.’

This is strongest value that a case study provides to your prospect. It shows your firm’s ability to solve pain points that your prospect is currently experiencing. When you can articulate that you have already solved the same problem they face, that experience is worth its weight in gold.

2. Focuses on Benefits, Not Features

Too often, the sales process bogs down when trying to communicate value, in the form of features (“With us, you get ‘X’, ‘Y’ and ‘Z’). For a prospect that is struggling with an issue, hearing about the benefits they’ll gain (“Here’s how we’ve helped others and can help you, too) is far more important. Illustrating benefits helps a prospect understand how your product/service can address their pain point. A list of features only describes characteristics of a product/service, which is relatively meaningless to the prospect.

3. Highlights Competencies

Before buying a product or service, companies want to know that your firm has the expertise to support them. Not only can you present a viable solution to their pain, but you also have the expertise to implement the recommended solution. And post implementation, it shows that you have the knowledge and wherewithal to help the client deal with the issues that will inevitably arise.

4. Illustrates Client Relationship Skills

It’s been said that, all things considered, people buy from people they like. Case studies can demonstrate your company’s likability in that they describe how well your company and its people work with others. Perhaps you had to bridge the gap between two internal stakeholder groups, or help teams understand the value they’ll gain from releasing a death-grip on outdated legacy processes. Either way, it shows your ability to empathize and respect others, while moving the project forward.

5. Shows Ability to Produce Results

When you can deliver results for clients, they will continue to buy your products and services. Case studies show that you have real-life experience producing meaningful results, and gives client and prospects with a strong reason to buy your products or services.

Who benefits from using case studies to drive sales? 

In short, any company.

For example, financial services firms use case studies to articulate the ways in which they produce value, whether through investment performance or improving efficiency of operations teams. Case studies help IT companies illustrate the value they’ve produced for clients by enhancing security, stability and organization of technology architecture. Recruiting firms use case studies to describe how they’ve delivered value for clients by leading hard-to-find placements or time-consuming searches.

Case studies improve your company’s credibility, brand awareness and sales growth. They can also build and reinforce relationships and trust with clients and prospects. If you’re not using case studies to shift sales into high gear, what’s holding you back?

How To Use Email To Hit the Mark

Don’t Fail at Email!

Email is a vital marketing tool for attracting new clients while keeping in contact with current clients. However, many companies overlook important structure and content items, with often disappointing, if not disastrous results.

The following items, when used in email marketing campaigns, can render the email useless, and frequently divert your important email to the junk mail folder. Some of these are content-related, and can be just as damaging. Do any, or all of these, and you’re well on your way to a successful fail mail campaign!

1. Attachments

Unless you’re emailing to people/companies with whom you’ve had a previous dialogue, sending emails with attachments is an effective way to go directly to the junk mail folder.

2. Pictures

Not to be confused with HTML imagery; emails with .jpeg, .png, and other image formats often find the spam folder with impressive speed.

3. Lame Subject Line

Since email is often the first introduction of your firm to a prospective client, why use a boring, stale and unattractive subject line? Lame subject line equals rapid-fire deletion.

4. Too Much Content

Ever receive an email and open it, only to be greeted by content whose length rivals CVS receipts? While grunting, “Ugh” in exasperation, you click to delete the email with a brutal efficiency.

How far did you read, if at all?

5. Too Little Content

Sending an email with barely more than a subject line is like to telling your prospective client, “I’m too lazy to bother with giving you enough information to help you find out more about us, but you should buy anyway.”

Let me know the next time you find a prospect or client that accepts this ‘offer’.

6. Weak Content

When it comes to communication, content is king. Make sure that it’s the best it can be! Perhaps you’ve got the right amount of content, but the content itself lacks the sizzle that attracts people. Without a compelling message, prospects won’t see value in your company’s products or services.

Use strong, powerful words…like verbs. Typically, the point of an email is to solicit some sort of positive response. Having a call to action with verbs does just that. It puts prospective buyers in the frame of mind of using your product and elicits an emotional response to using your product.

A Volvo dealer might close an email to prospective buyers with the following call to action.

“Grip the wheel. Sink into the soft leather seats. Experience the exhilarating sensation that only comes from driving a new Volvo. Test drive yours by the end of the week, and get $500 cash back toward your purchase!”

7. Lack of Links

Posting links in your email campaign is a simple, yet effective way to drive traffic to your company’s website. It’s also far more Google-friendly. Depending on the length of your email, you should have 3-5 different links (not five links that all go to the same landing page). One hint – make sure that your website content is compelling too!

Email is a critical form of communication for companies of all sizes. Some use it mostly for interacting with clients; others use it to drive new business. Either way, following these simple guidelines increases the likelihood that your important emails reach the target audience and deliver the right message. With one chance to make a good first impression, why wouldn’t you make the extra effort?