Промышленный лизинг Промышленный лизинг  Методички 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 [ 38 ] 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61

1. Understanding. One reason to ask questions is to determine whether customers have issues that the seller might be able to help them with. Here, its important to remember that its not important that you think the customer has issues you can address; whats more important is what the customer thinks about these issues.30

2. Thinking differently. A second reason to ask questions is to help someone think differently. Of course, its possible the other person wont think differently after youve asked the questions. But thats okay, because the primary purpose of asking questions should not be persuasion. Persuasion is merely a result of helping someone to think differently about something. When people set out to be persuasive, they often become combative. Therefore, view persuasion as a reward, not an objective or purpose.

GETTING PEOPLE TO THINK DIFFERENTLY

Dr. Tom Ingram, chairperson of the Marketing Department at Colorado State University, contends that if a salesperson asks questions about the consequences of a customers business problems, the salesperson is more likely to get the customer to think differently about how serious these problems may be.31 When questions are asked in order to manipulate, to get someone to do something that he or she may or may not want to do, the strength, honesty, and objectivity of the long-term relationship with the customer is in danger.

Wilson Learning Systems found in its research that in most cases, what passes for consultative selling is simply the needs-based selling approach. Prompting the customer to tell you what he or she already knows is not true consulting. Nor is consulting simply asking questions to determine a customers needs, listening well to the answers, and recommending the products that best match the customers stated needs.32



Dr. Richard Ruff of Sales Momentum in Scottsdale, Arizona, states:

The real power of really good questions lies in their ability to cause customers to think about their situation from multiple perspectives. But, of course, asking really good questions is not that simple nor that easy.

EXAMPLE

Harry Harter is a consultant with Ivy Leaguers, a firm specializing in public relations work for athletes. He is calling on Joe Westfall, an agent who represents six of todays tennis stars. Joe recognizes that his athletes dont always project the public persona that he envisions. But he doesnt think this is a big enough problem to warrant paying the premium prices that retaining Harry and Ivy Leaguers would cost until Harry begins asking questions to try to understand why Joe didnt think his problem was big enough to solve. The conversation really progresses when Harry continues asking more questions to try to help Joe think differently about potential problems that a poor image could cause for the athletes and for Joe himself.

Harry: So, Joe, you are troubled by the image of your tennis stars on and off the court, but you dont feel its damaging enough to invest in our services right now. In other words, you just dont see the value in a solution at this point, is that right?

(Harry is attempting to make certain he understands Joes position.)

Joe: Couldnt have said it better, Harry. I just dont think our players image problem is a big enough issue to justify spending the kind of money you are asking.

Harry: OK, but what could potentially happen to endorsement revenues as well as your own fees from these revenues if one or two of these players loses his endorsements because of poor



media coverage? (Harry is still trying to understand why this potential problem doesnt bother Joe more.)

Joe: If it hasnt happened by now, it probably wont happen.

Harry: You dont think it could ever happen?

Joe: Well, if they were going to get into trouble, they would have gotten into trouble by now. Its just that simple.

Harry: Thats what Nixon probably thought, too, before Watergate, but he got caught. Are you willing to take the chance that it wont ever happen to your athletes? Can you spare the revenue you would lose? There is no way to predict the future. Isnt the real question here this: Is it better to be safer now than to be sorry later? (Harry is helping Joe to view his current opinion from a slightly different perspective so that he might think a little differently about it.)

Joe: Perhaps, but I dont know. Are there any other options besides the one we talked about that wouldnt be as expensive but could reduce my future risk?

Harry: Maybe, but I am going to have to ask you a few more questions first, if you dont mind? (Harry returns to wanting to probe for understanding.)

Joe: What do you want to know?

Harry: Well, to begin with, lets examine the status of each contract endorsement by player and try to figure what the financial downside would be if only two of your players lost their smallest endorsements. . . . How much money would we be talking about, Joe?

And Harry continues to try to understand Joes thought process. As you might expect, Joe began to view the loss of endorsement contracts as a higher risk than he had initially thought. Note that Harry



1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 [ 38 ] 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61