When we think of salesperson ability to close, it may not surround itself by solving a customer’s problem. They are multiple avenues for customers to achieve that and more likely is a commodity trap. The real power, your ability to close in today’s world is solving something entirely different. At the basic level, we still need to solve the problem. More importantly, we need to solve something else, an unmet need. It comes from a question that is more powerful than the 5 Why’s, and Michael calls it, for good reason, the Awe Question.
Listen to Michael explain it:
The premise of the book by Michael Bungay Stanier’s titled The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever. is to teach managers how to make coaching part of their everyday job. In it, they drill down on 7 essential questions and as the authors say, “ to demonstrate how—by saying less and asking more–you can develop coaching methods that produce great results.”
The 7 Essential Questions:
- The Kickstart Question – What’s on your mind?
- The Awe Question – And What Else?
- The Focus Question – What’s the Real Challenge for You Here?
- The Foundation Question – What do you want?
- The Lazy Question – How Can I Help You?
- The Strategic Question – What Are You Saying No To?
- The Learning Question – What Was Most Useful for You?