Bill is often referred to as a "legend" and "a closer's closer" by other selling professionals. As one international Top Gun once put it, "Bill is the person other Top Guns would go to for advice on closing a tough sale."

Bill was in the selling profession for almost thirty years as a salesperson, sales manager, and sales trainer. His personal sales record is awesome: Over $1.2 billion in the areas of equipment leasing, securities, and real estate!

Bill's books, tapes, newsletters, and regular columns in marketing and financial journals put him in the forefront of the sales profession in several industries. The Anatomy of the Equipment Leasing Sale has been an industry best-seller for over a decade and The Closer's Catechism is an international success hailed by many as the greatest manual on personal selling skills ever written. Bill pioneered two works in the mathematics of equipment leasing for the Hewlett-Packard 12C - and 17 and 19B financial calculators. His audio series, The Lease Master, was an industry first, and is still being enthusiastically received all over North America.

He was a regular contributor to many periodicals including the Monitor, a widely read journal in the equipment leasing industry. He appeared on radio and TV talk shows and has been published in The New York Times. Bill wrote several newsletters for both public and private clients.

Bill served as a sales trainer and marketing strategist to a Who's Who list of clients including the following: AT&T Credit, AT&T Capital Corp, GE Capital, Bell South, Northern Telecom Financial Corp., Copelco Capital Corp., Eastman Kodak, and Xerox.

He is a former registered representative with the New York Stock Exchange and a registered principal with the National Association of Securities Dealers. He also held the distinction of having been one of the youngest National Directors of Training among member firms of the New York Stock Exchange.

Can I Ask You A Question?

by Bill Granieri

Most salespeople talk too much during a presentation, and they commit this selling sin because they have been trained to PRESENT – which requires that they talk.

Talking too much is a selling error that I must constantly work at avoiding because being talkative is a part of my personality.  Being over-talkative confuses prospects, creates objections, and often causes the salesperson to talk past the close.  I know, believe me,

I know.

Some years ago The Forum Corporation of Boston reported that top salespeople ask for 75% more information than they give, which would seem to suggest that they spend a lot of time listening:  which means they ask a lot of questions; which is something that every salesperson is told to do, and which I something they are hardly ever taught to do correctly – which is something that researchers are currently moving to the front training burner.

For years sales training programs have been teaching question forms known as open and closed end probes.  Open end probes ask for clarification and more information.  Closed end probes isolate and confirm.

EXAMPLES:

Open-End Probe:         “Mr. Prospect, why do you feel that your company will be better of

                                    off if you deal with a local leasing company?”

Closed-End Probe:       “So, what you are saying is that a local company can give you

                                    better service, right?”

These question forms are nice selling tools.  I teach them and use them myself.  But if you really want to make the CLOSERS’ CLUB this year, you must also go to another level and use what researchers are calling dialogue or Socratic questions – questions that involve both the salesperson and the prospect; questions that put the prospect in the driver’s seat.  This doesn’t mean that you lose control over the direction of the interview. It simply means that you involve your customer in the discovery of certain truths, the same way that Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher, got students such as Plato to discover truth for themselves by asking questions.

Let’s take some examples of dialogue and Socratic questions.

1.                   “Tell me more”….”What else should I know?”

2.                   “I sense this means a lot to you.”

3.                   “I’m ready to talk about leasing as a financing method, but first I’d like to know your feelings on the subject of financing.  This will allow us to address what is important to you.” (This is a classic Socratic approach to qualifying and blueprinting a prospect.)

4.                   “How is the fact that your labor costs are increasing while you cannot raise your prices proportionately, affecting the cash flow of your company?”

5.                   “Why are tax deductions import to you right now?”

The principle is that questions that require a yes or no answer, or questions that simply ask a prospect to recite a known, do not tell you much about the prospect. 

Remember:

The contemporary buyer wants to deal with salespeople who establish themselves as consultants and advisers.  Asking Socratic or dialogue questions helps to establish a consulting image in the mind of your prospect.  Remember also that you as a salesperson represent 63% of the reason a client will select your company over a competitor. The product counts for only 31% of the decision.  These intimate probing questions help to establish you as a sincerely interested, trustworthy adviser, who can help solve problems.

BINGO!

Active or Involvement Questions

I learned this question form from the late J. Douglas Edwards many years ago, and it is a very worthwhile addition to your selling repertoire.

An ACTIVE QUESTION is a question that you ask a prospect that he would have to ask himself if he owned your offering. These questions INVOLVE your prospect in the presentation and advance the sale.

EXAMPLES:

1.                   A real estate salesperson showing a couple around a house that is for sale.

“Mrs. Prospect, will you be using this room as the master bedroom or a guest room?”

ANALYSIS:  This is certainly a question that the prospect would have to ask herself if she owned the home. Her answer will advance the sale toward the close.

2.                   A copier salesperson.

“Mr. Prospect, which employees will we be training in the use of this color copier?”

ANALYSIS:  Same as for #1.  Note too, that active questions assume the close.

Active questions are “Courageous Questions”.  They are the types of questions that Top Guns ask prospects.

My purpose in this article was to introduce or reintroduce you to some question forms that are evergreen selling tools, but specifically effective in the contemporary selling climate.

The problem with many Tog Gun wannabes is that they do not use what they have been taught when they are in actual selling situations.  In fact, Zig Ziglar once observed that the average salesperson uses only 10% of what he or she has learned about selling when they are in front of a live prospect.

ACTION ASSIGNMENT

Develop a great many dialogue, Socratic, and involvement questions relative to your offering and practice them aloud.  Tape them and play then while you are driving.  Practice and preparation are keys to the CLOSERS’ CLUB.  As Vince Lombardi once put it, “A person who fails to prepare, is preparing to fail.”

AMEN.