The best way to sell to a customer is to learn about the customer and the best way to learn about the customer is to let them talk. So how do you pinpoint what you need to know and extract that from the customer without spending hours in rambling conversation? You ask questions, of course. How do you maximize the amount of information you get for the question asked? Make the question short.
Short questions create a social need in the person being asked to give a longer answer in order to “fill the void” by talking. If your question is the <em>Cliff Notes</em> version, the answer will usually also be the <em>War and Peace</em> version. This social paradigm we have built-into us can be utilized to your advantage and allow you to access better information from your prospects.
Customers who are hard to connect with, who have specific needs that you cannot fill until you know what they are, or just current clients from whom you’re hoping for a referral or extra business are all people with whom you need to narrow things down.
Your questions should be actual questions, not just facts stated as a rhetorical or yes-no feedback loop. Ask for an example of something, for an explanation of a process, etc. Use what your customer’s business does as a way to engineer questions that get the details of what that is out in the open so you can use those to pinpoint where you can offer something that results in a sale.
Then continue your line of questioning, asking more (short) questions based on the answers you’ve received.
Here’s a good approach to this way of extracting information.
Start with a “soft” question that gets the conversation going. “How is your business doing in this economic climate?” or “Has your industry seen a change in the way business is conducted?” These leading questions get a short response, but that should be enough to start asking short questions that draw out more information from longer responses as the prospect warms up to your receptiveness and inquiry.
What you’re demonstrating when you engage in this way is curiosity about the prospect and his/her business as well as showing that you’re listening and interested in their business (and by proxy, them). This creates a bond that will usually result in them talking more and more as you query.
Most of the time, if you do this correctly and do it long enough, the customer will literally come out and tell you what they want or need.