Many people falsely think that asking implies weakness and sets one up for potential rejection. It's easy to come up with excuses to avoid asking questions that can return critical answers. Yet, the world responds to those who ask. Here are three asking strategies you can implement in your business to boost your results.
1. Ask for information. You can never have too much information. To win potential new clients, you first need to have an understanding about their current challenges, what they want to accomplish and how they plan to do it. Ask questions starting with who, why, what, where, when and how to obtain the information you need. Only when you truly understand and appreciate a prospect's needs can you offer a solution.
2. Ask for business. Would you believe that more than 60 percent of the time salespeople never ask for the order after giving a complete presentation about the benefits of their product or service? Always ask a closing question to secure the business. Don't waffle or talk around it, or worse, wait for your prospect to ask you. No doubt you have heard of many good ways to ask the question, "Would you like to give it a try?" The point is, ask.
3. Ask for written endorsements. These can be difficult to ask for if you don't like tooting your own horn, but well-written, results-oriented testimonials from highly respected people are powerful for future sales. They solidify the quality of your product or service and leverage you as a person who has integrity, is trustworthy and gets the job done on time.
