Hey DiD’ers! Let’s talk “locked boxes”.
When a prospect calls or messages, it can feel like you are speaking with a “locked box”. You don’t know what’s important to them, what their past experiences have been, what brings them joy or misery, what they are afraid of, and so on.
On top of that, many prospects enter into the exploratory part of their buying journey in a guarded, distracted, or distrustful state of mind.
This makes sense, since many buying experiences end up making prospects feel like they’d rather spend their afternoons being water-boarded than buy whatever it is the hack salesperson is trying to sell them.
This is why we need to ask great questions. The answers to those questions can unlock the “mystery box” of WHY customers are ACTUALLY calling us. And when we know WHY, we are in a much better position to “open the box”.
Here’s a killer question that can be used to your advantage in just about any home service sales situation. I call it the “Looking Question”
“When you are looking to hire a home service contractor, what are some qualities you are searching for?”
Use this question early on in the conversation- ideally right after you’ve greeted them and collected their information.
Simply ask the question, and then…shut…up. If there’s silence, let it linger. This is critical- we NEED to wait the prospect out until they give us a response. Why? Because this question, asked this way, is very likely to get the prospect thinking in a way they haven’t before (at least, consciously.)
The answers you get will give you immediate insights into what the prospect’s key motivators are.
👉 Do they mention responsiveness, and then complain about how hard it is to “even get a quote”? Now you know to lean hard into your proactive and convenient communication practices.
👉Do they relate a story about the time they hired smelly, uncouth, mouth-breathing workers to do that one thing that one time? Perfect- you know that your clean-cut, uniformed technicians will add serious value to your offer.
👉Do they mention an aversion to bait-and-switch sales tactics? Great! Your up-front pricing and easy-to-understand proposals will be a hit.
The Looking Question is one of the best bang-for-your-buck sales questions you can ask because of its skeleton key quality- it will unlock deep-seated motivators from just about any prospect you encounter. You can then tailor your sales approach to tap into those motivators for maximum effect.
Try The Looking Question on your next ten sales calls and see what happens.
Happy hunting, DiD’ers.
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