The sales process · Sales enablement
The answer to your first question is the one the buyer has already rehearsed.
High impact questions are the few questions that change what a buyer thinks while he is answering them. They ask about consequence, cost and who else decides, instead of gathering facts you could have looked up beforehand. The second question, the one after the answer, is where the work happens.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
High impact questions are the few questions that change what a buyer thinks while he is answering them. They ask about consequence, cost and who else decides, instead of gathering facts you could have looked up beforehand. The second question, the one after the answer, is where the work happens.
Most first meetings are an exchange of information neither side uses. The seller asks what the requirement is, the buyer gives the answer he gives every supplier, and within ten minutes both of them are discussing rate. Nothing that either person believed at the start of the meeting has moved.
A high impact question is one the buyer has to think about before he can answer. It usually asks what the present arrangement is costing, what happens if nothing changes, or who else will have to be comfortable with the decision. He hears himself say the answer, which is worth more than any claim you could make.
This is not the qualifying checklist. Budget, authority and timeline decide whether an enquiry is worth your week, and that work belongs to the qualifying framework step further on. These questions are what open the pause where one of the stories from the step before actually earns its place.
Where this sits
Stage 5 of 10, sales enablement. What the person selling says, sends and answers with, written down instead of improvised.
- The stage before
- Lead generation
- The stage after
- Sales qualification
If you want this done for you
New joiners are trained by whichever senior rep has a free hour.
The work
What this step is actually like.
“The second question is the real one”
The first answer is the public version, given to everyone. What makes you say that. Since when. What have you already tried. Ask one of those and the buyer stops reciting and starts working it out, and the meeting changes character.
“Then stop talking”
Count to five before you say anything. The person who fills that gap should be him, and most sellers rescue the pause at three because it feels unbearable. On a phone call add one line first, saying take your time, I am here, because silence on an Indian mobile call reads as a dropped signal.
“Ask what the present arrangement costs”
How are you managing it today, and what does that come to in a month. A transport operator off Hosur Road who works out his detention charges out loud in front of you has made your argument for you. You could not have asserted that number, and he would not have believed you if you had.
“Ask permission before the direct one”
Can I ask you something straight. Buyers say yes, and the question that follows lands as candour rather than nosiness. It is how you get to ask what would make this an easy no, which is the most useful sentence in a first meeting.
What we do
What you end up with.
The artefacts this step produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.
A card of about ten questions
One side of a card, grouped under four headings: what happens now, what it costs, who decides, and what happens if nothing changes. Keep it in the diary, not in a folder on a laptop nobody opens in a meeting.
Result: A salesperson walks in with something better than a requirement sheet to work through.
Five follow-ups, written out
The short ones that go after any answer. What makes you say that. Since when. What have you tried, who else sees it that way, and what would have to change. They are the same five every time, which is why they can be memorised.
Result: Nobody takes the first answer at face value out of politeness.
The answers kept in the buyer's own words
Three lines in the CRM or the notebook, verbatim, before the next meeting starts. A paraphrase loses the exact sentence you want to quote back when the proposal is written.
Result: Your proposal opens with something he said, which he cannot argue with.
A limit of three per meeting
Three questions that need thought, and the rest of the conversation normal. Ten in a row is an interrogation, and buyers answer an interrogation in single words.
Result: The meeting still feels like a conversation when it ends.
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
This work sits inside sales management. A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Step 1
Sales audit
Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.
Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.
Step 2
Sales process design
One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.
Start here if every salesperson sells differently.
Step 3 · you are here
Sales management
A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Start here if the team has targets and no routine.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
How is this different from our qualifying questions?
What if the buyer will not answer?
Who should write our list of questions?
Where does the team practise these?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Where to go next
The work that carries this step further.
Services
The rest of sales enablement
Or read the whole sales process in order.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.