Make the customer feel like you are really there to solve their problems. Listen carefully and don’t push your agenda. Try engaging with the customer on topics that interest them. The aim is to create a relaxed environment before jumping into sales pitches. Be sure to -

- Focus completely on your customer. Make them feel like you are giving them your total attention - don’t be   distracted by other things on your mind.
- Help your customer – Understand what they need and how what you are offering helps them achieve their   objectives. Avoid any aggressive counter-arguments to force-sell your products.
- Make him feel as reaxed as possible before you move on.
- Always have a smile ready.

Make sure that the customer understands what you are going to talk about for the next few minutes or hours. Explain the objective of your meeting and what you hope to jointly achieve.

Try something like:
- “Over the next 15 minutes, I want to discuss with you the topic…”
- “I wanted to meet you to understand/find out…”
- “The objective is to determine/decide…”

Objective questioning is about getting the facts so that the customer and the sales professional are on the same page. These questions ask for data like “what have you seen, heard, known”? Stick to the facts – no opinions and interpretations. This is a warm-up round. The answers given at this point will provide you with aim the customer’s set of facts on the topic.

This line of questioning aims to connect with the customers’ intuition, memory, emotion and imagination. These are questions that explore the people’s relationship to the data and the issue at hand. It also shows that you value their experiences. The queries are generally related to feelings, moods, emotional tones, memories or associations. Here are a few examples:

- What does it remind you of?
- Have you experienced anything like this yourself?
- Which aspect is most compelling for you?
- How does it make you feel?

The “why” questions come at this level. These are usually very meaningful and call for more time to respond and listen. These questions create a “sense” to the customers about the facts and the concerns (the previous two levels). The questions can contain: layers of meaning, purpose, significance, implications, stories and values. Examples include -

- What is this all about?
- How could this affect your work, growth and profitability in the future?
- What can we learn from this?
- What is actually going on here?
- What can we do differently?

These questions take the customer towards a resolution of the issue or topic. Review what has been covered and accomplished. Have the customer agree to go forward with the decision taken. Open questions like - “what is your decision?” or “what will you do now?”- are related to consensus, implementation and actions to be taken. Sometimes, though, it is safer to use closed questions like “This is what we are going to do- ok with you?” or “Do I understand you correctly that you want to…this way?”