Customized Training Solutions
for Selling Your Ideas and Responding to Your Clients
Telephone: 847-438-4480 E-mail: info@impactcommunicationsinc.com
www.impactcommunicationsinc.com
Three Question Strategies to Make Your
Sales Funnel Flow Faster, and How You
Should Use Them
niques for motivating prospects by uncover-
By Michael J. Webb,
ing their pain. Another variation, the “how,
Sales Performance Consultants, Inc.
how much, what bottlenecks” questions,
When your company is well synchronized with were popular in computer sales training in
market needs, prospects buy and money flows. Un- the 980s. These questions help crystallize
fortunately, few companies can maintain a constant and dollarize problems and solutions when
flow. Salespeople churn out demonstrations, sam- needs cut across departmental lines or when
ples, and proposals. Marketing departments churn lifecycle costs count.
out newsletters, ad copy, and brochures. But not
enough prospects close. If the customer has exactly the problem you
can solve, but isn’t consciously ready to buy,
What makes the sales funnel flow faster? The key problem/solution questions can help you
is coordinating your sales and marketing efforts— show that the fit is right. But don’t use them
aligning everyone in your organization according when your customers are not in decision-
to the questions you ask your prospects at different making mode and need information. These
stages in your relationships with them. These ques- questions will make them uncomfortable.
tions form the logical connection between the work You will seem to be justifying the sale at the
of sales and the work of marketing. expense of understanding that your customer
is not ready to close, and your relationship
Marketers need to know the questions that sales- may be undermined.
people ask of customers at different points in
Strategy #2: Objectives, Strategies, and
the selling cycle, so they can provide the cor-
Issues
rect types of support to make selling easier. Like-
wise, salespeople need to know when to turn to
marketing expertise to build customer knowledge The second type of question gets at your pros-
and awareness, especially when customers are pects’ business and departmental objectives.
not ready to buy. What strategies will they use to achieve those
objectives? What issues and/or challenges do
If you don’t have enough prospects ready to they face? Stepping back to get a broader
buy, review and refine your questioning strate- view, you can scope out people’s perspec-
gies, then realign your sales and marketing orga- tives (including decision makers’), as well as
nization around them. Following are three question departmental politics and priorities. You can
strategies you can use to make your sales funnel build relationships, steer clear of time-wast-
flow faster, and some examples of how to sales and ers, and start generating a consensus, even
marketing can work together to move customers before you start “selling.”
through the sales funnel.
Of course, simply asking, “What are your
Strategy #1: Problem/Solution business objectives?” won’t work very well.
Asking questions that reveal some prepara-
The problem/solution question strategy tion is a different story:
emerged to address the old adage, “You can’t
sell the solution, unless you’ve sold the prob- “I read in your company’s newsletter that
lem first.” For example, Michael Bosworth’s your department received a quality award.
Solution Selling® (Irwin, 995) offered tech-
Continued on page 2
January 2008 — Face-to-Face Communications Skills Newsletter Page: 

Customized Training Solutions
for Selling Your Ideas and Responding to Your Clients
Telephone: 847-438-4480 E-mail: info@impactcommunicationsinc.com
www.impactcommunicationsinc.com
You know it takes time to build those kinds
Nice going! And your annual report said
of relationships. How can you make the fun-
quality was one of your president’s key ob-
nel flow faster?
jectives for this year. Tell me, what did you
do here to earn that recognition?”
Making Your Sales Funnel Flow Faster
This approach adds value to the relationship,
since you show that you know something Suppose a prospect is stuck because the right peo-
about the customer’s business when you ask ple are unclear on the importance of solving certain
the question. In their book, “Beyond Selling problems. They would want to hear case studies
Value” (Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2002), revealing the dangers and what happened to com-
Dan Kosch and Mark Shonka describe how panies who did nothing, right? Who could provide
to ask these questions and leverage the infor- that information?
mation they provide. Clearly, prospects want
relationships with suppliers they trust. Trust Or, suppose that the prospect is considering a “roll
can make the sales funnel flow faster. You your own” approach. Would this prospect be inter-
can earn that trust by taking the time to un- ested in the details, risks, and rewards of what is ac-
derstand their business. tually involved? Who could provide those details?
But these questions can also have a draw- Are these value-adding questions the job of sales?
back: sometimes they are so open-ended it Salespeople may have some of this information, yet
can take a long time for the salesperson to are they the ones best suited to provide it? They
find what they are looking for. And time is are not.
often in short supply.
Marketing departments are often asked to produce
Strategy #3: Synchronization product-oriented communications and promotions
in a generic fashion. These talented people work
Synchronization questions are key to effec- ferociously to produce newsletters that may go un-
tiveness. Marketing and selling never work read, leads that might be ignored, and collateral
when you ask your prospects to take actions that may not be used. Instead, marketing efforts
they are not ready for. If the problem you should focus on making the sales process easier by
solve is not on a decision maker’s radar yet, addressing the specific information needs of your
that person will not recognize the value of customers in situations like these.
your products and services.
How should you use these three questioning strate-
Synchronization questions make you focus gies in your organization? First, identify the stages
on learning the decision maker’s priorities. prospects go through in solving their problems.
That person’s business life, like yours, is rife Next, identify where they get stuck in their journey,
with problems. Which ones require attention and why. Then jointly charge sales and market-
now, and which can wait? What are the alter- ing to devise questioning tactics that help prospects
natives, the pros and cons? Who else should progress through those stages, especially where
be involved, and why? How trustworthy is they get stuck. Do prospects fail to realize they
the available information? have a problem? Do the risks of taking an action
appear greater than the reward? Do they struggle
These questions engage prospects where to build a consensus? Some situations may be bet-
they are. Good salespeople always try to get ter solved via marketing tactics such as articles and
into that “sweet spot.” They know that when case studies. Others are better solved via sales tac-
a prospect sees the salesperson putting the tics, such as the three questioning strategies we’ve
prospect’s best interests first, the prospect described.
will share all kinds of strategically important
information. Then they move forward togeth- Either way, you will help prospects work on the
er… through the sales funnel.
Continued on page 3
January 2008 — Face-to-Face Communications Skills Newsletter Page: 2

Customized Training Solutions
for Selling Your Ideas and Responding to Your Clients
Telephone: 847-438-4480 E-mail: info@impactcommunicationsinc.com
www.impactcommunicationsinc.com
problems they actually want to solve. You’ll build
relationships. And you’ll make the most of the re-
sources you have (both sales and marketing) in
ways that make the sales funnel flow faster.
Michael Webb, our guest contributor, is a President
of Sales Performance Inc, a company that specializ-
es in a Six Sigma Approach to sales. He is author of
the book, Sales and Marketing, The Six Sigma Way.
He can be reached directly at mwebb@salesperfor-
manceinc.com
Impact Communications, Inc. consults with individuals
and businesses to improve their face-to-face and
over the phone communication skills. It is not
what you know but how you communicate it that
makes a difference. When you have to have impact,
phone (847) 438-4480 or visit our website, www.
ImpactCommunicationsInc.com.
Copyright © 2008
Impact Communications, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
January 2008 — Face-to-Face Communications Skills Newsletter Page: