Let’s say you have a client who is not very happy with his job because some of the people he works with are not very appreciative of the service he provides them. He feels that he has a thankless job and is always being imposed upon. There is suppressed resentment in his voice as he describes how he feels about working with these people.
When you dig into the matter further you find that he feels fine about some of the people he works with because they appreciate what he does. He smiles as he recounts how working with these people makes him feel. He is quite satisfied with his relationship with these people. When a problem appears, he is able to discuss it with them and resolve any issues that appear.
You notice the difference in his attitude toward the good customers and the ones he cannot stand and you ask him to compare how he deals with each of these groups of people. He says the bad customers are hard to work with and the good customers are easy to communicate with. More questions reveal that he feels overwhelmed by the customers who give him a hard time and end up being unreliable. Still, more questioning reveals that he generally knows when a prospect is going to be trouble, but for some reason is not asking the prospect the hard questions that would have flushed out problem areas so they could be dealt with.
By this time he may be getting irritated at your line of questioning because you are getting him to look at an area of life that makes him uncomfortable. If you get him to look at his difficulty in asking hard questions which would reveal potential problems with the customer, he may be able to take a broader view of his situation and recognize that he is embarrassed to ask the questions he should be asking.
These are the important questions that can be asked in a friendly, non-challenging way:
What are their expectations?
What are they trying to accomplish with this action?
What will provide a successful result for them?
How much money are they willing to spend?
These are the responses that show how you can meet their expectations
Benefits for various levels of performance
Costs for various levels of performance
Delivery dates for various levels of performance
Risks and imponderables if applicable
You show you understand their expectations by your questions and your responses. You inspire confidence in your service by knowing the benefits, costs, and delivery time frames and presenting them in a confident way.
When a person knows the true value of their work they are able to explain the advantages and limitations of what they are providing without hesitation. If someone comes in with unrealistic expectations, they can gently correct the false expectations in a way that does not offend the customer. Open communication can bring about a change in the customer’s reality and if done in a caring way will enable a profitable transaction. Caring communication can bring about a meeting of the minds.
If you have uncertainties about your ability to deliver what is needed, you must know the capabilities of your product or service and you must learn what the customer’s expectations are before you start explaining what you propose to deliver.
More people know the capabilities of their product or service than are able to ask the hard questions which will uncover what the customer expects.
If a person knows about SRT, you can go directly into processing the spirits who are making it difficult to ask sensitive questions. Their fear of failure or loss of a sale will cause them to suppress your willingness to ask the right questions. A few SRT sessions will free up your ability to ask the questions you need to ask in order to qualify a prospect and close them.
If spiritual counseling is not your thing, you can drill asking the hard questions that will qualify a prospect until you can do them without faltering. You need to know what he wants and whether he can pay for it. If you do not ask the right questions at the very beginning, you will be uncertain and may be wasting your time and the customer’s time.
Trying to sell your services to a person who cannot afford them is a waste of your precious time. Get his expectations and his budget before going any further and you will end up with more satisfied clients.