Keeping the conversation going – Learning from your customers!

In my last blog I discussed Open-ended questions and Closed-ended questions and I promised to get back to Reflective questions. Reflective questions are one of my favorites, they are actually enjoyable to use, and yes I admit somewhat lazy...

Always be listening!

Think about playing catch with someone, they object of the game is to throw the ball back to the other person. Think of the conversation as the ball, you ask a question and throw ball (conversation) back to the prospect, the moment they finish they throw the ball back to you. It your job to get the ball (conversation) back into their hands. When you are meeting a prospect and trying to learn about their business needs it is important to have them talking and explaining, not for you to ramble on about your products. You can't learn if you’re talking.

With Reflective questions, you simply keep 'throwing the ball' back to them. Let me give you a couple of examples.

Your client says "We have been way too busy around here since the new contract started"

Your reply is "new contract started?"

Your client says "We used to handle our IT externally, until we got an in-house IT department"

Your reply is "in-house IT department?"

By simply repeating the last few words your prospect says, you can get your prospect to continue the conversation. They have the ability to take the conversation any direction that they want to. That's the beauty of this technique - they literally direct the entire conversation and you simply support it. Using active listening and reflective question gives your prospect a strong sense that you are really interested and engaged in them and their needs.

I mentioned that this was a lazy technique, that's because truly it's easy to do, you just have to listen and repeat. I find this very helpful in social situations, it's great for friendly gatherings when you don't really understand the content being discussed. Think about it "really -a nuclear phase inverter -you don't say"...

Try this and talk about your successes with Reflective questions.