What You And a Doctor (Should) Have In Common

What do you have in common with a doctor?

Well you never went to medical school and you don’t wear scrubs. And not to mention, the sight of blood makes you squeamish.

So nothing, right? Wrong!You both provide a service you consider important. And much like a doctor, your customer will have to trust you when they make the decision of whether or not you bring their business to you.

Doctors are highly respected, so rarely do patients question a diagnosis or prescription.

As a small business owner, your main objective is to have your current and potential clients see you inthe same light. If they have a problem that’s at all related to what you do, you should pop in their head as the first person to call because they already know you can help them.

Anyone can get to this kind relationship with their clients, but you should have some specific skills like keeping the customers best interest in mind and being confident. But being inquisitive is the most important skill you can have as a salesperson.

Think about it like this. You tell the doctor what’s wrong and he starts to ask you questions. When did it start hurting? Does it hurt if I do this, etc.

In fact, even if nothing’s wrong and you’re just going in for a checkup, the doctor still asks questions. So you’ll have to learn which questions to ask to know the right plan of action.

When’s the last time you’ve seen a small business salesperson present a product or service and seen the client make a purchase right away?

Never! That’s because most people decide whether or not to buy based on word of mouth, ads, intuition, a past experience and more.

So, if you start with some questions to get your prospect warmed up and talking about their wants, needs, and thoughts of the service or product you offer to get a better idea of what they need so you can help them make a more informed choice and you get the.

Try asking something along the lines of “What have your experiences in the past been with this kind of service?” Be prepared to spend more time filling them in, because they could know a lot about what they need, or they could know nothing.

Ask what is it that they hope to get from your services. It could be something totally different from what most people look for, so you don’t want to run the risk of turning them off or even intimidating them by talking about something that doesn’t really make a difference to them.

To use an analogy to explain this small business sales technique a bit better, think of a torpedo. A torpedo departs the ship in the general direction of its intended target and ricochets a signal towards right direction of its designated target. If that signal doesn’t come back, the torpedo changes its direction and tries again.

That’s what being inquisitive can do for you. Even if you start off in the wrong direction with your questions, your potential customer’s answers will let you know how to get back on track, so you can help them get the most of out of your services.