by Paul Cherry
A new year has begun, and the pressure is on! How are you going to achieve your higher revenue goals in 2007? How will you get your clients to spend more money? Most importantly, how will you and your company make up for the accounts you lost in 2006? "By making our clients happy and keeping them happy," you say. Sure, but where will you start?
Maybe you think you can keep your clients happy by avoiding ruffling their feathers with tough, uncomfortable questions. Think again! Your clients can't solve their problems if they don't acknowledge them. Or maybe they've had too many fires to put out this year. As a result, they've had little if any time to constructively think through their challenges and to think about what steps they need to take to achieve next year's goals. And that's where you come in, by helping them to see the bigger picture.
You can use the business version of "tough love," in the form of probing questions that will help your clients recognize their problems. And you will create some urgency so they're more likely to take action. Best of all, because you dare to ask the questions that are critical to their success in 2007, you've positioned yourself as part of the solution.
You know these tough questions are important, but maybe you've held back from asking them because they can:
- Be imposing
- Be intrusive
- Be uncomfortable
- Take away your selling time.
You may even feel a little afraid to hear your client's answers. What if she says she hasn't exactly been elated with your work on her behalf, and she's already shopping around among your competitors? Don't let this possibility intimidate you! If those issues or anything else is a thorn in your client's side, you need to hear it from her and remove that thorn before it tears a gaping wound—perhaps a fatal one—into your business relationship. Instead of fearing negative answers, embrace them as tools that can help you give your client the intensive care her business requires—and put money in your pocket instead of your rival's.
Building Up To Asking Probing Questions
Asking probing questions can be the building blocks to providing your clients with the best solutions to their problems, because these questions will help you to:
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