Asking the Right Questions to Win New Business - Winmo

Reaching out to a prospect can be enjoyable if you are able to turn that outreach into a new business win. However, more than 40% of salespeople say prospecting is the most challenging part of the sales process.

Winning more business typically comes down to two things: defining the right opportunity and asking the right questions to seamlessly close the deal.

How do you reach out to a prospect?

Sharon Napier, CEO of Partners + Napier, discussed this in detail during a webinar. According to Sharon, it all begins with being able to identify the RIGHT opportunity, while also focusing on business you can actually win. Successful new business professionals identify these opportunities by asking really good questions, allowing them to build relationships early on and uncover key insights to help them close the deal later.

According to research, during a four month period, 7% of people will exit their current company. If you’re already spending too many hours hunting down qualified prospects, imagine repeating that cycle every four months.

Start off by asking engaging questions to understand your prospect’s fit and value. Questions like:

• ​What are you seeking to change about your current agency relationships?
• ​Where do you want to see your brand/business in the next year? The next three years?
• ​What is your anticipated budget for this initiative?

These questions get prospects talking about their brand in a new and refreshing way. Not only does this give you a better idea of what they’re looking for, but it allows the prospect to really think about what hasn’t worked for them and why they may need something different.

Asking the Right Budget Questions

When it comes to budget, getting prospects to share this information is critical because it allows you to provide realistic expectations from the start. This also helps you understand why relationships may not have worked in the past—if a brand has a very low budget for an outsourced service, this could explain why the brand isn’t happy with their current partner/vendor/agency. Uncovering their needs allows you to provide a tailored solution that is the right fit for your prospect’s need and budget, while highlighting the value you provide.

Next, ask questions to better understand what your prospect wants. These include:

• ​What are the top three things you are looking for in a partner like us?
• ​How would you want us to behave as a partner?

Not only does this set up the prospect's expectations of you from day one, but it also allows you to understand the needs of your prospect and establish if you are the right fit. If you are, you can explicitly define your capabilities and offerings. It might be tempting to cater your services based on all your prospects’ needs, but this is a slippery slope that may result in a client that you can’t satisfy long term. Make sure you clearly define your offerings to avoid this.

Once you have established that this piece of business is right for both you and the prospect, it’s important to establish your odds of actually winning the business. You can do that by asking questions such as:

• ​What does the competitive field look like?
• ​How many vendors/companies/agencies have you worked with before?
• ​Does anything stand out as a disadvantage?

These questions are crucial to understanding where you stand in the process. They also allow you to address hesitations, clarify any concerns, and understand the prospect’s criteria for selecting a product or partner. It’s important to do research ahead of time and use specific examples when asking why something you do may come across as a disadvantage to your prospect.

Why Is Asking the Right Questions Important to the Selling Process?

Aside from winning new business, asking the right questions is important to the selling process because it allows you to invest your time wisely in the right opportunities to increase your closing odds. By increasing your time with the RIGHT opportunities, you ultimately decrease your time with the WRONG opportunities, allowing you to focus on the relationships that are worth investing in further. It also allows you to qualify prospects faster, uncover timely opportunities, and invest in building valuable relationships with the opportunities that may need more nurturing to exponentially increase your firm’s odds of closing more new business, faster.

Now that you know the right questions to ask, make sure you’re asking the right person. Find decision maker emails, direct dials and more with Winmo!