How To Build Trust With The "Ask. Don't Tell." Formula

If you're doing the talking, you're not focused on the customer.

Here’s a powerful, but simple, sales technique to help ensure that you keep the focus on the customer in your sales interactions. It is an effective method to build trust with the customer and to demonstrate that your primary concern is understanding their requirements and learning what you need to do to deliver value to them. This works equally well whether you’re meeting in person with a prospect, meeting virtually or talking on the phone.I call this the “Ask. Don’t Tell.” formula. Every time you have an opportunity to tell your prospect something, ask a question instead. Ask. Don’t Tell.Instead of telling a prospect "We have this great feature xyz…” ask them “If you had the capability to do xyz, how could you put that to use in your business to improve productivity?”Or, instead of telling a prospect “Our customers average a 20% improvement in performance after the first year using xyz…” ask the question “If you were able to improve productivity by 20% within 12 months how could you use the additional capacity to immediately boost your market share?”Imagine that you are on a first call with potential prospect. This is an early make or break moment for you in the customer’s buying process. This is the point in time where you can begin to build the foundation of trust and credibility you need to differentiate yourself from the competition.If you are in a telling mode then everything you say is fundamentally about you. Even if benefit statements accompany all of your factual claims you are still talking about yourself. And the customer senses this. On the other hand, if you ask a question, the focus is on them, the customer. Which method builds trust? Which approach opens the door to developing the credibility you need to become a trusted advisor to the customer?In order to amplify the impact of your selling, don’t tell the customer the value your product or solution will provide to them. Let them tell you. Don’t tell the customer the entire story. Let them fill in the blanks on their own. Questions give your prospects the license to think about your product or service as a user would. Suddenly they will transition from half-heartedly listening to your pitch to taking a mental test drive of your offering. And, when they have to formulate an answer to your question, they have to articulate the value that they will receive from you. In that process, they start taking some ownership in the solution.View the “Ask. Don’t Tell.” formula from the perspective that an effective salesperson also has to be a bit of a therapist. Think about the similarities. A person consults a therapist when they have a problem that they can’t solve on their own. They need outside help. They seek out a therapist because they need an objective third party to help them understand their problem and provide a path to the solution. An effective therapist doesn’t provide you with the answer to your problem. Instead, they ask insightful questions that enable you to identify the problem you need to solve and to arrive at a solution. The goal is for you to figure it out, led by the questions the therapist asked.If you want to help your customer solve their problem, don’t tell them the answer. Ask them the question.