Which of the following questions must a salesperson be able to answer in order to demonstrate

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As great salespeople, we need to be excellent at finding the right solutions for our customers. A quality solution is when you help your customer do one of the following four things: Solve, Improve, Increase or Save something within their business. A quality solution is tailored to the needs of the customer, so that when it is presented it is seen as a perfect fit.

The problem is that many salespeople focus too much on the solution. They try to solve problems too quickly, and offer solutions before the customer is fully bought in.

In fact, the art of delivering a quality solution starts way before the pitch. It comes from first taking the time to clearly define the customer’s problem.

“If I had an hour to save the world, I’d spend 59 minutes defining the problem, and one minute coming up with the solution” – Albert Einstein.

In this blog, we share with you a questioning process called DRIIIL.

DRIIIL is an advanced questioning technique, for face to face solution sales. DRIIIL helps you uncover customers needs and define their challenges so that when you present the solution, you are certain that you will have 100% buy-in from the customer.

The DRIIIL Questioning Process

There are 6 steps to DRIIIL:

1. Direction
2. Reality
3. Issue
4. Impact
5. Imagine
6. Lead

Let’s have a look at each part in a bit more detail.

1) Direction: set the direction of the meeting

Ask:

“What do you want to get out of this meeting?”

“What’s the most important thing you want to achieve today?”

Why it works:

Most salespeople will start the meeting with their own objectives. Asking the customer to state their objectives is a professional and assertive way to start the meeting. It allows you to tick off all of their agenda points. And, interestingly, the customer almost always replies with their biggest problem, need or pain point. A great gateway into your subsequent questioning.

2) Reality: explore their current situation, probing for any issues

Ask:

“Tell me about your current set up in regard to…”

“What challenges are you facing, in regard to…”

Why it works

Asking leading questions about their current issues (specific to areas you can help), allows you to quickly pick up on any challenges, problems, or needs they have. It allows you to quickly understand how you can best help them.

3) Issue: drill down into the issue

Ask:

“Tell me more about that…”

“Explain to me how that…”

“What specifically do you mean by…”

Ensure that you focus on using Open Questions a this stage of the process:
“Who… What… When… Where… Why… How….etc “

Why it works

Often a surface level complaint is not actually the real problem. These questions help you dive deeper under the surface and define the customer’s real issues.

These questions also create trust and rapport as the customer feels listened to and understands that you care.

4) Impact: find the impact

Ask:

“How does that affect your business?”

“What impact does that have on your business?”

“How does that impact you – your team, your profit margins, your customers?”

 Why it works

These questions are some of the best questions in sales. This is because they shift the conversation away from the problem (the rational business issue) and towards the impact (the emotional, personal impact). Talking about the impact allows you to fully understand the bigger picture and open up the emotional side of the brain; a key influencer in all purchasing decisions.

5) Imagine: Get the customer to paint a picture of the solution

Ask:

“In your mind, what would help to resolve these issues?

“What does a good solution look like?”

“How could you see us working with you?”

“What return on investment are you looking for?”

Why it works

If a customer tells you exactly what they want then you know exactly what to offer them as a solution. Plus, if a customer starts to visualise your solution in their head, they have already started to imagine working with you. They are bought into the idea as they helped to create it.

6) Lead: How can I help

Ask:

“So, how can I help with this issue?”

Why it works

Although this may seem like a strange question to ask at the end of the questioning process, it really works. This is because customers tend to respond to this question in one of two ways:

1. They tell you exactly how you can help (i.e. pitching your solution back to you)
2. Or they say, “I don’t know, you tell me” (leading you nicely into the presentation of your solution)

Summary

Both outcomes allow you transition naturally to your proposal, and present a quality solution you are confident is exactly what the customer desires.

In summary, DRIIIL is an advanced questioning technique that can be used to support high value solution sales.

As with any questioning process, the 6 steps are not set in stone, and it is common to move around the steps to fit in with the natural flow of the conversation.

However, using these questions will allow you to uncover customers needs and clearly define their problems, increase customer desire for your offer and ultimately enable you to close more high-value deals.

Reading time: about 6 min

Posted by: Lucid Content Team

If you are one of the 2.5 million employees in the United States working in sales, you know that even for the most natural salesperson, it can sometimes be difficult to turn potential leads into closed sales. Across industries, you need different skills and knowledge to prove to your potential customers that your solution is best for their particular problem.

The seven-step sales process outlined in business textbooks is a good start, especially since leading sales ops teams attribute to 60% or more of their total pipeline in any quarter to actively designed and deployed sales plays. The seven-step sales process is not only a good start to customizing it to your particular business but more importantly, customizing it to your target customers as you move them through the sales funnel.

As the old adage goes, “Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.” Once you’ve mastered the seven steps of the sales process you might learn in a business class or sales seminar, then you can break the rules where necessary to create a sales process that may not necessarily follow procedure but gets results.

The textbook 7-step sales process

What are the seven steps of the sales process according to most sales masters? The following steps provide a good outline for what you should be doing to find potential customers, close the sale, and retain your clients for repeat business and referrals in the future.

1. Prospecting

The first step in the sales process is prospecting. In this stage, you find potential customers and determine whether they have a need for your product or service—and whether they can afford what you offer. Evaluating whether the customers need your product or service and can afford it is known as qualifying.

Keep in mind that, in modern sales, it's not enough to find one prospect at a company: There are an average of 6.8 customer stakeholders involved in a typical purchase, so you'll want to practice multi-threading, or connecting with multiple decision-makers on the purchasing side. Account maps are an effective way of identifying these buyers.

2. Preparation

The next step is preparing for initial contact with a potential customer, researching the market and collecting all relevant information regarding your product or service. Develop your sales presentation and tailor it to your potential client’s particular needs. Preparation is key to setting you up for success. The better you understand your prospect and their needs, the better you can address their objections and set yourself apart from the competition.

3. Approach

Next, make first contact with your client. This is called the approach. Sometimes this is a face-to-face meeting, sometimes it’s over the phone. There are three common approach methods.

• Premium approach: Presenting your potential client with a gift at the beginning of your interaction
• Question approach: Asking a question to get the prospect interested
• Product approach: Giving the prospect a sample or a free trial to review and evaluate your service

Dive deeper into the various sales approaches you can use to start a relationship off on the right foot.

In the presentation phase, you actively demonstrate how your product or service meets the needs of your potential customer. The word presentation implies using PowerPoint and giving a salesy spiel, but it doesn’t always have to be that way—you should actively listen to your customer’s needs and then act and respond accordingly.

5. Handling objections

Perhaps the most underrated step of the sales process is handling objections. This is where you listen to your prospect’s concerns and address them. It’s also where many unsuccessful salespeople drop out of the process—44% of salespeople abandoning pursuit after one rejection, 22% after two rejections, 14% after three, and 12% after four, even though 80% of sales require at least five follow-ups to convert. Successfully handling objections and alleviating concerns separates good salespeople from bad and great from good.

In the closing stage, you get the decision from the client to move forward. Depending on your business, you might try one of these three closing techniques.

• Alternative choice close: Assuming the sale and offering the prospect a choice, where both options close the sale—for example, “Will you be paying the whole fee up front or in installments?” or “Will that be cash or charge?”
• Extra inducement close: Offering something extra to get the prospect to close, such as a free month of service or a discount
• Standing room only close: Creating urgency by expressing that time is of the essence—for example, “The price will be going up after this month” or “We only have six spots left”

7. Follow-up

Once you have closed the sale, your job is not done. The follow-up stage keeps you in contact with customers you have closed, not only for potential repeat business but for referrals as well. And since retaining current customers is six to seven times less costly than acquiring new ones, maintaining relationships is key.

Want to nail the sales follow-up process? Follow our tips.

Now that you understand the basic seven stages of sales process development, you can begin to tailor them to your own product or service and customer base. Cut out steps that are unnecessary to your particular business and focus on your customer. You know the rules—now get ready to break them in ways that bring you closer to your customer and turn you from a sales professional to a sales artist.

Whatever approach you take, keep these fundamentals in mind:

Identifying the customer’s problem

You have a product or service you want to sell—now what? Anyone with a problem related to your area of expertise can be a potential customer. You'll need to dive deep into discovery work to learn each buyer's specific goals, needs, and pain points. 

Develop a solution for the customer

Once you have uncovered problems for your products to solve, tailor your offerings to fix those issues—and be prepared to explain how your product truly is a solution for the given problems. Sales engineers can use Lucidchart to visually demonstrate how their product or service solves client problems and makes their lives easier, such as the flowchart below.

Following up isn’t just for after the close to get repeat business. As stated before, most customers don’t buy right away. You have to handle objections and try, try, try again. This is where the seven-step sales process doesn’t account for repeated approaches, presentations, meetings, or phone calls where you handle objections. If it did, it might be a 13-step sales process or a 21-step sales process, or… you get the idea.

Bottom line: stay connected—set up a calendar for repeated contact with potential, present, and past customers so you're more likely to reach them when they're ready to buy.

What are the key steps in the sales process? Whatever your customers need them to be.

Once you’ve tried out a few different approaches, tweaking the original seven steps in the sales process to fit your customers better, document your successes so that you can follow the steps that work best and easily get new reps up to speed as they are onboarded.

Whatever steps you settle on, you need to document your sales process to ensure that sales reps follow it. Learn about sales process mapping.