You’ve approached your target, engaged in a friendly ice breaking conversation and hopefully managed to get them to let their guard down just a little bit. Now what? Well let’s discuss the next step in the sales process.
The next step is to ask probing questions to learn about the needs of your customer. Your customer is in your store for a reason, something interested them enough to walk into your store and chances are they need something from there or else they wouldn’t still be there. Most of the time they already have a general idea of what they need the product to do but aren’t sure which product it is, that is where you come in. The reason you’re asking these questions is so you can suggest a product to them which fulfills their need, and is something of value to them.
When I worked at a cell phone store, many customers came in and each of them had different needs. Maybe 1 customer wants to text message a lot and the other just needs a phone to talk on for emergencies. You’re goal right now is to figure out what those needs of your customer are. Asking them questions that are relevant to your products and what they can offer. Questions like, “Do you text message a lot or prefer to talk on the phone more?” Questions like that will help you in the next step. Usually it’s a set of questions to help narrow down possible products you could suggest to them. If you ask them only 1 probing question, it leaves the possibilities to be too broad and the product you suggest may have too many features or not enough to your customer.
Remember that every customer is different and each of them has a different set of needs. Tailor your probing questions to the specific situation. If you work in a cell phone store you’re not going to be probing about cars because you don’t offer cars, even though the customer may need a car. Keep it relevant to what you can offer and keep it light. THIS IS NOT AN INTERROGATION, IT’S A FRIENDLY CONVERSATION YOU CAN USE TO YOUR ADVANTAGE.
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