Sales Quiz: What's the Most Effective Question for New Prospects?

SCENARIO: You're meeting with a new prospect and are trying to gather information that will help you move the sale forward. Your contact has just announced that she needs to leave for an important appointment, so you only have time to ask one -- and only one -- brief question. Here are your choices:

• Question #1: "Do you have a budget for this?" Obviously, you don't want to waste time with a customer doesn't have a budget? Therefore, the most important piece of data you need is whether the customer has the money to buy.
• Question #2: "Are you the budget owner?" If you're going to sell to somebody, it had better be to somebody who has the authority to buy. Therefore, the most important piece of data you need is whether your contact has buying authority.
• Question #3: "Are you the decision maker?" If you're going to sell to somebody, it had better be to somebody who actually needs your offering. Therefore, the most important piece of data you need is whether your contact will make the buying decision.
• Question #4: "Whose numbers determine the budget?" If you're going to sell to somebody, you need to know how the prospect's firm operates. Therefore, the most important piece of data you need is how the company's accounting works.

If you ask "Do you have a budget for this?" you may find out whether the money is there, but you haven't found out what's really important, which is who controls it and decides to spend it. This is the worst choice.

If you ask "Are you the budget owner?", you'll probably find out if there's a budget or not, but you won't really understand the players that are likely to make the buying decision as a group. This is better than the previous question, but not by much.

If you ask "Are you the decision maker?", you might find out something useful. However, the real decision-maker may have explicitly told a lower-level person to pretend to be the decision-maker, in order to keep from being bothered by sales reps (meaning you). In addition, middle managers are often reluctant to reveal their lack of decision-making power, even to themselves.

By contrast, if you ask "Whose numbers determine the budget?", you'll find out all sorts of useful information, because the person who controls the numbers is always the decision-maker and always has authority over the budget. More importantly, talking about the budget process doesn't threaten the middle-manager's ego nearly as much as a question that infers that he or she lacks decision-making power or control over the budget.

The above is loosely based upon an article by John Holland, the co-author of the best selling book, CustomerCentric Selling.