This Podcast Is Episode Number 422, And It's About Digital Disaster Recovery For Your Construction Company Sales are about addressing your customers' needs and problems. By understanding the issues clients face, you can show them how your service solves their problems.  Here are some tips for asking the right sales questions to better understand and help your customers.  1. Don't jump into sales questions right away. Sales aren't just about making a sale, although that's certainly part of it. Instead, sales are about building relationships. That's how you make a sale today and encourage repeat business tomorrow.  When you start asking questions, don't begin by asking questions about the sale specifically. Instead, ask questions that develop a relationship and give you a chance to get to know the client better.  For example, ask questions about their long- and short-term goals. After that, move into questions about the issues they face and what solutions they currently use. Then, find out what does and does not work about those solutions. That will help you understand your potential customer, which allows you to meet their needs right now and anticipate future needs. 2. Ask open-ended questions Open-ended questions will get you the answers you need to help you offer a solution. Closed-ended questions will only frustrate you and provide you with no additional information. For example, don't ask: Is budget a consideration? "Yes" or "no" answers won't help you here because even if they say "no," what they could mean is "no, but within limits," which really means "yes."     Instead, ask, "What sort of a budget are you looking at spending?" The customer will likely give you a range and may even talk about similar past purchases or related products they are considering. Then you have a reference to frame your solution.    3. Listen to their answers   Once you've asked a question, really listen to their answer. Focus on understanding their needs and addressing them. Then, talk about how your service addresses the issue of their problem. Once you've done that, you can go into the additional benefits your product or solution offers.    Be careful not to run through a list of robotic, pre-programmed questions, either. Often, something a prospect says leaves room for further exploration. Take the opportunity to ask follow-up questions, not push your way through a list of pre-arranged queries.   Condition Yourself For Success Be-Do-Have: Be The Person, Do The Work, Have The Results. - Randalism In life, contractors produce reasons or results and, reasons don't count. Over the years, we have experienced success and failure in construction. Success comes whenever I have engaged mentors that are where I want to be. Failure always comes from engaging people who cannot produce results but think they can. To get to the truth about your construction company, you must go on a journey. It is four levels deep, and like most successes in life, it is simple but not easy.  A Story To Illustrate The Four Levels Of Truth What Contractors Want To Hear - One evening after work, a group of contractors met at the , the neighborhood tavern with a round table, pitcher of beer, and four contractors. They talked about how tough it is to get profitable jobs no matter what the economy is like. When times are good, it is hard to find employees; when times are tough, the phone doesn't ring. Everyone agreed there was nothing anyone could do about it. What Contractors Want To Believe - A short while later, they talked about making money and agreed that big contractors make most of the money, and little contractors were doomed to struggle. Everything Else - One of the contractors suggested maybe they could ask one of the larger, more profitable contractors and determine what they did that made the difference. This, of course, made the other contractors a bit...