Have you ever called on a potential sales prospect who is complacent about his business problems?… Is your customer in survival mode?… Is your sales prospect hoping the problems will straighten themselves out on their own? Perhaps your prospect is just plain clueless about the problems he is facing?

Your customer wants to fix his problems, but because he can get caught up in his day-to-day struggles, it is hard to step back and assess the situation. That’s where you step in. It’s time to do some tweaking to your sales prospecting techniques — helping your customer organize his thoughts, assess the situation, and start addressing his business problems — by asking the following two questions:

1. What is this problem costing you in terms of (resources, money, profits, overhead, productivity, output, labor, time, customers, market share, etc.)?
2. What’s the implication on you and your organization should this problem continue?

Improving your sales prospecting techniques by asking these two questions will help you evaluate their current situation, quantify their problem and determine their commitment level to take action!