You would hope the answer is, “yes.” After all, research since the late-1980’s has shown asking the right questions improves selling success. Unfortunately, our own research of 396 B2B sales professionals shows decades of selling experience gradually improves probing skills, but not taking multiple sales training programs. These sales training programs are surely helpful in mastering other skills, but not for changing behavior when it comes to asking good questions.
Download research report, VOC Skills that Drive B2B Sales
It’s likely that entering call reports into your Customer Relations Management system (e.g., SalesForce.com) is more important than your sellers think it is. At least this is what our research shows. In a study of 12 voice-of-customer skills (with 396 responses), salespeople rated their competency in making CRM entries the lowest… and the least important. And yet, this VOC skill had one of the strongest correlations to beating sales quotas. Whoops.
Download AIM Institute research report, VOC Skills that Drive B2B Sales
Instead, ask the right questions about your customer’s problems. The consultative selling movement was given a major boost in 1988 with Neil Rackham’s ground-breaking research in SPIN Selling. By observing more than 35,000 sales calls, they established that the most successful salespeople ask great questions. Decades later, we had our own question: Are some questions more likely to drive sales? (The answer is “yes”!) We surveyed 396 B2B sales professionals with over 6,000 years of combined experience concerning 12 voice-of-customer skills.
Download AIM Institute research report, VOC Skills that Drive B2B Sales
