If you love ice cream, you’re probably familiar with the Cold Stone Creamery premium ice cream chain. Customers have a choice among three serving sizes: “Like It!” is the smallest, “Love It!” is medium-sized, and “Gotta Have It!” is the largest portion. Similarly, your business prospects have three levels of commitment. Asking them the right questions will tell you whether your prospect is in the “should” stage, the “want to” stage, or the “have to” stage. Lock-on questions are a big help here, maintaining your conversation’s natural flow while subtly steering it in directions that’ll lead you toward better understanding of your prospect’s commitment level.

Ken Roma, a vice president of sales for a medical forms printing service that sells to the healthcare marketplace asked me the following question:

“How do you handle getting passed from CFO to CEO to COO (C-Suite Executives) and back and forth among various decision-makers?”

Ken, this question comes up a lot in our pharmaceutical and healthcare sales training programs.

Facilitate C-suite Team Communication

Many times, C-suite executives are not very good at communicating internally with each other. Egos, conflicting priorities, and competing resources get in the way. That’s where you come in. You literally have to orchestrate the c-suite team and get them talking, if not to each other—then definitely with you.  

The best way to get them talking is to ask good power-probing questions. This will lead to you having a better handle of their situation than they do themselves. That’s when you are truly on the inside of their organization. You have now planted yourself as a trusted business resource—where they turn to you for advice.

When someone provides you honest, detailed explanations about why he opted not to work with you, at least you’ve gotten a straight answer from them.  But in most cases, people hide their motives for fear of making themselves look bad, or stupid, or giving the impression they’re not team players. How do we find out where they’re really coming from without getting snowballed?

Why do people play these games anyway? Perhaps they’re trying to:
 

Patrick Connor and I are gearing up for an upcoming FREE web workshop dealing with physician's thinking styles in relation to pharmaceutical  and medical device sales training. We will be teaming up with sales expert John Kuchna of Strategic Outcomes.

Event: Free Webinar
Date: Mon, January 28th, 2011
Time: 1:00 pm (EST) • 10:00 am (PST)
Duration: 60 min (including 15 min Q&A)
Speakers: Paul Cherry, Patrick Connor, John Kuchna

Webinar Description

Have you noticed that certain questions can elicit a great response from one physician and a closed response from the next physician? It is very difficult to state that one great question works on all physician types. Some doctors are agreeable but never take action. Others are quantitative and critical, putting you on the defense. But if you know what questions to ask—based on a physician’s specific thinking style—your results can skyrocket.Whether you’re trying to develop new relationships or strengthen your existing ones, consultative probing questions tailored to thinking styles can give you sustained access and expand the length of the call.