The greatest weakness of salespeople today is that they are product-centered and not people-oriented, and tragically are unaware of this problem. Therefore salespeople are much more comfortable talking about their company and the product or service that they offer.

That’s not why people buy products and services. People buy products and services because of their needs and their individual buying motives. Of the six psychological buying motives, only one is pain. If elimination of pain is the primary focus of your sales presentation, then you’re missing a much higher percentage of sales then you’re getting.

Sure, knowing your product is a given and having the prospect comfortable in dealing with your company is also a given; however, what the prospect wants to know is “What will it do for me?”. How do you find this out? Not by talking, but by listening. A good salesperson is a good listener. A great salesperson is a great listener. You will gain two important benefits when you let your prospects do the talking.

• The only time you know what your prospects are thinking is when they’re talking.
• The only time you can control the focus of your prospect’s attention is when they’re talking.

This dynamic is at work on every sales call that you make. When you’re doing the talking your prospect’s mind may be wandering off in a thousand directions. You have no idea what his or her thoughts may be, but when your prospects are talking, you know what they’re thinking. Only when they’re talking can you control their thinking. Not their actual thoughts, of course, but the focus of those thoughts.

The late Sir Lawrence Olivier once advised, “You have to have the humility to prepare and the self-confidence to bring it off.” The best salespeople in the business prepare a list of standard qualification questions to be used on every sales call. In addition to the standard queries they design specific questions that relate directly to the prospect being called on.

There are two types of questions: fact-finding and feeling finding. There are three kinds of questions: open, reflective and directive.

As the name implies, fact-finding questions are asked to uncover basic concrete facts, the hard data. Their purpose is to help you qualify the prospect and direct your presentation to fit the particular needs of the buyer.

Fact-finding questions should be simple, easy to answer and designed to relax the prospect. You want to avoid giving your prospect the feeling that they’re getting “the third degree”. Yet at the same time these questions should be designed to provide valuable information to help you properly qualify your prospects and to guide your presentation to fit their needs.

Facts alone, however, are rarely enough. You also need to uncover your prospect’s feelings, attitude and opinions. The things that are important to them, their emotions and motivations for buying whatever products and services you’re selling. To gather this information you ask feeling-finding questions.

There are three kinds of questions: open-ended, reflective, and directive. They can give the salesperson invaluable information to uncover likes, dislikes, opinions, attitudes, needs, decision-making process, budgets, etc. The open-ended question is a question, which cannot be typically answered with just a yes or no. Even though salespeople are generally aware of the difference between an open-ended question and a close-ended question, invariably salespeople ask close-ended questions. Reflective questions encourage the prospect to open up and share additional information. You use the directive question to direct your prospect to specific information you want.

What participants will learn:

• Why questions are much more powerful than statements
• How to use the different types and kinds of questions
• Professional selling questions to use in building your own questioning process
• How to use questions to build rapport and establish trust
• Three of the most important questions you’ll ever ask in selling
• How to close the sale by asking a question
• How questions uncover FUDs (Fears, Uncertainties, Doubts)

Roy Chitwood has been a leader his entire career: First in the insurance industry, and since 1976 as President of Max Sacks International (MSI), the firm that has been teaching sales professionals to sell more effectively since 1958.

Roy started selling in 1960, when he became an insurance agent in Los Angeles for Midland National Life Insurance Company. He quickly moved into positions as Branch Manager and District Manager, and then as Regional Manager for a companion company, Westland Life Insurance. He built his region from a one-room office into the top-producing territory in the company, with 28 branches throughout Southern California and Arizona.

Throughout his insurance career, Roy continued to make in-person sales calls, to keep in touch with the realities of day-to-day selling. Early on, he realized that proper training techniques were the key to building a strong sales organization. He devoted two years to designing a sales training program, and in the process developed many of the selling methods now taught by Max Sacks International.

Roy moved to MSI in 1976, when he acquired the firm. While retaining the vital aspects of the Sales Training Program which had helped thousands of corporate personnel since 1958, he found the program could be even more effective when enhanced by the skills and techniques he had refined in the insurance industry.

• "Thank you for a superb seminar. After racking our brains for topics that will be of interest to our membership, it is gratifying to hear the complimentary comments about your partnership in selling seminar that have come to us, unsolicited, all week...
  
  It is difficult to ask people in sales to give up an entire day out of the field. We always hope that they feel the investment is worth it. The feedback I have gotten tells me that we should have done your three-day seminar!"
  - Susan Jakubowski
  Executive Director
  Electronic Representatives Association
  Michigan Chapter
  
• “It is hard to believe that almost 25 years have passed since I personally attended your Track Selling course in L.A.. However, I do know that I have advanced from a regional manager back then, to my position as I retired this year of, Senior Executive Vice President of five divisions. I had the responsibility for over 4000 associates and $1.2 billion in revenue. I would add… that I have applied Track Selling methods in my sales activities and my communications to our people “every single day.”"
  -James L. McCarty
  James L. McCarty & Company
  Prior Lake, MN
  
• “I first went through Track Selling as an enrollment counselor in 2001. That training took me from closing at a 60% rate to a 92% closing rate. There is no place in Track Selling to lose a student if you follow the simple seven steps. This training that you presented to my enrollment team has increased their overall team closing percentage from a 50% closing ratio to 60% within 2.5 months.”
  - Kim Savich
  Director of Enrollment
  University of Phoenix, Brookfield, MN
  
• "Your profound understanding of the sales process enabled listeners to grasp what they were doing right - and wrong."
  - William Holl
  Group Vice President
  Coca-Cola Enterprises
  
• "Dynamic, insightful, provocative, and entertaining."
  - Mike Phillips
  VP Sales and Marketing
  Crownline Boats, Inc.
  
• "We've all been to presentations that pumped us up - and a few days later we couldn't remember what all the excitement had been about. The energy we get from Roy is based firmly on knowledge and insight. We can draw upon it forever."
  - Faye Pegg
  Sales Manager
  Canada Post Corporation
  
• "Outstanding!...Terrific!...Powerful!...Insightful! - and the comments continue to pour in about your presentation for the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of NSA. Roy, your professionalism provides an inspiring role model to new and experienced professional speakers alike."
  - Thomas K. Callister
  Program Chair
  National Speakers Association, Greater Los Angeles Chapter
  
• "What a great meeting! When you talk to a room full of salesmen about selling skills, you're talking life's blood. Did you notice no one fidgeted or doodled or walked around or even whispered? (I've seen meetings where they were so restless I wanted to smack their knuckles with a ruler!) They were hanging on your every word."
  - Leslee C. Myers
  Director
  Electronics Representatives Association
  Southern California Chapter
  
• "Your knowledge and understanding of salesmanship and your tremendous personal ability to articulate this knowledge in such an entertaining fashion made your presentation score the highest ratings at our conference."
  - Raymond J. Hall
  Executive Vice President and CEO
  Electronics Representatives Association
  
• "What a pleasure it was to have you address our Retail Service National Meeting. The comments have been overwhelmingly positive. The audience was impressed that you took the time to learn about our business and adapt your techniques to our needs. People walked away with renewed enthusiasm concerning their jobs."
  - Carol T. Polin
  Director, Retail Service
  Mattel Toys

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