The ONLY good response to EVERY question…

During the sales process, your prospects ask questions. On any number of topics. The features you provide. The nature of your support. Whether you can change part of the pricing. Product performance. And quite often they ask questions without actually asking questions: if they redline/update a Statement of Work, or the contract, they are effectively asking questions.

Sometimes you might have an easy answer. Yes, we have that feature. Yes, we can provide support that way. Yes, performance meets those criteria. Yes, I can accept that change. Sometimes you have to say no. Sometimes you don’t know and have to go check. Or maybe you have options.

Regardless of the question or of your position, THERE IS ONLY ONE CORRECT RESPONSE, and it is true in nearly every single possible situation. Any guesses?

“Could you let me know why that is important to you?”

Ultimately, the customer has a reason for asking the question. Maybe they’ve just realised that their project relies on a certain functionality they have not discussed with you. Maybe your competition has planted a landmine to trip you up (mixed metaphor aleart!). Maybe the CFO is imposing some regulations. Maybe they’re just curious.

Without knowing why they are asking, you can’t answer helpfully. There are many ways of responding, all of which are similar to my suggestion above.

* “Sounds like you have been burnt with an issue around support response times?”
* “Could you explain the use case for that feature in your business?”
* “My guess is there is something behind that question, can you give me a little more background?”

And then be quiet and listen to their response.

Once you know the reason, your follow-up will be much more applicable.

* “Ah, you’re trying to achieve X. Yes, the feature you described would achieve that, but there is an easier way…”
* “I can always ask about a discount, but we have more flexibility on payment timing.”
* “It sounds like that performance goal is considerably higher than you need in order to deliver an excellent user experience; and we can further enhance the user experience by…”

This way, you don’t get caught in landmines. You don’t spend time investigating how to deliver a feature that is only of passing interest. You don’t spend time defending your performance when it’s more than adequate.

Always, always ask why-are-you-asking?