CHAPTER
Questions are the Answer
Zig
Chances are excellent that you’ve noticed something that virtually all professionals have in common: every one of them is tastefully and conservatively dressed. The reason is very simple. Countless, and I do mean countless, psychological studies reveal that the appearance of the counselor—and that is what a professional salesperson is—has a direct bearing on whether or not the advice given is going to be followed.
The second thing that professionals, whether they’re doctors, lawyers, ministers, accountants, tax consultants, guidance counselors, architects, psychiatrists, or salespeople, have in common is they ask a lot of questions. The reason is fairly obvious. The professional must identify your problem, your need or desire. They have to find out what you want and what you need before they can offer the solution.
They also know that if they ask you the right question, you will often come up with the solution. That way it’s your idea, so your chances of enthusiastically following through are dramatically increased. For the professional salesperson, the advantages are obvious, because it bears out the concept that you can have everything in life you want—in this case more sales—if you’ll just help another people get what they want—in this case a solution to the problem.
Incidentally, the professional also directs the interview so that the prospect or person being counseled asks questions so that he, the expert, can give advice which is relevant to the prospect’s needs and concerns. That’s really what’s it’s all about.
In a nutshell, selling isn’t just telling, it’s asking. I’m obviously not talking about the police interrogator or the prosecuting attorney approach, where they put you on the griddle. I’m talking about the counselor-consultant, the helpful friend approach.
Let me share with you a story out of my own sales background. As I do, I want you to notice the number of questions that go back and forth. I also want to encourage you to notice something that when we reach a particular area of the questioning. This is where the salesperson’s self-image is so important.
Because of a fear of rejection, or a fear they’re going to offend somebody, or a fear they’re going to miss that sale, a lot of people are a little bit weak when they start to nail down some of their points.
In 1962, I was selling in the cookware business. I was in Columbia, South Carolina. I’ve always believed in nest selling. By that I simply mean I believe in selling in a small area. When I was in the life-insurance business, I used to work in one large building or one very small town. I’ve always felt that if you get in the car for a long trip with a half-million prospects next door, you ought to put on a chauffeur’s hat, because that’s really what you’re doing. You’re just driving around.
Anyhow, the little town of St. Matthews, South Carolina, was at that time about twenty-five miles from my back door in Columbia, South Carolina. I got started in that area, and we put on the group demonstrations at night. In less than six months, I sold over $40,000 worth of cookware in that little, bitty town. In those days, that was a powerful lot of cookware.
I’ll never forget one evening when I had a demonstration for seven couples. The next day, as I was making my calls, I sold the first five and knocked on the door for the sixth one. A booming voice came forth, “Come on in, Mr. Ziglar.”
I walked in, and there stood this big fellow. He had been there the evening before with his wife. He was about six feet, six or seven inches tall and weighed over 300 pounds, but he was not fat. He was just a big man.
As I walked in, he said, “Glad to see you. Me and you both know I ain’t going to buy no $400 set of pots, but it’s good to see you.” Now let me emphasize that that old boy had eaten food the night before in direct proportion to his size. I had bought that food, I had cooked that food, and I had served that food, so his introduction to our interview wasn’t exactly ideal as far as I was concerned.
When he said that, I grinned and said, “No, sir. I did not know it. You might have, but I didn’t.” He said, “Well, might as well be up front and tell you. I’m glad to talk to you because I understand that’s part of the deal so the hostess can get her prize, but I’m not about to buy no $400 set of pots.”
I grinned and said, “Mr. Prospect, it looks like you and I have lots in common.”
He said, “Oh, how’s that?”
“In my particular case,” I said, “my wife spends our money, and the neighbors take care of our business, and all I have to do is work. Now I don’t know what your situation is as far as your wife is concerned, but I can tell you neighbors are taking care of your business.”
“Oh,” he said, “how’s that?”
He was a very jovial fellow, and I said, “Well, I’ve been to five places, and in every case, after they had gotten their set of cookware”—I had to slip that one in—I said, “they would all ask me what did Mr. So-and-So do. I said I hadn’t seen him yet. They’d say, ‘Let me know what he does.’ I finally asked one of them, ‘Why does everybody want to know what this particular individual does?’”
The old boy laughed. He said, “They probably told you I was the biggest tightwad in the county.”
I said, “One of them did say something about the first dollar, but I’m not sure I understood what he meant.”
He laughed and said, “Me and you both know you knew exactly what he meant.”
“Yes, I guess I did,” I said, “but isn’t that amazing? You were born and raised right here in this little area.”
“Yes, never left five miles from here.”
“Isn’t that amazing? You were born and raised right here, and nobody here really knows anything about you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I thought you said you were not going to get the cookware.”
“I’m not.”
“Isn’t that amazing? You were raised around these people. None of them know you.”
“Explain what you’re saying.”
“Mr. Prospect, let me ask you a question. Last evening, were you sincere”—don’t ever ask anybody if they’re telling you the truth; that’s an insult—“when you said you knew that your family could save at least a dollar a day cooking in our set of cookware?” We’d made a big to-do about demonstrating the economy.
“Mr. Ziglar,” he said, “I’ll tell you. As big as my family is, I could save $2 a day. I have four boys, and they’re all bigger than I am, and they all eat more than I do, and you know how much I ate last night. I could save $2.”
“A dollar a day, then, would be very conservative, wouldn’t it?”
“It sure would.”
“Then if I cut that dollar half in two—a half a dollar a day—that would be ultraconservative, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes, it would.”
Notice this. Then I said to him, “Well, if that set of cookware would save you fifty cents a day, that means it costs you fifty cents a day not to have it, doesn’t it?”
“Well,” he said, “I suppose you could say that.”
“No, sir. What I say is not important. I’m talking about your money, so what do you say?”
“Well, I suppose I could say the same thing.”
I said, “No, sir, now we can take that suppose out, can’t we?”
“You’re the most persistent guy I think I’ve ever seen.”
“I’m talking about your money.”
“OK, we’ll take it out. Yes, I could save fifty cents a day.”
“Then,” I insisted, “that means it costs you fifty cents a day not to have that set of cookware.”
He said, “OK, point’s made.”
“Now, Mr. Prospect, what that really means is this. It means that every two days, your wife will take a dollar out of the family till, and because she does not have this method of preparing the food and saving shrinkage and electricity and all of that, it means that she literally every two days will take a dollar out of the family treasury and tear that $1 bill all to pieces. Every two days she will do that, and it really amounts to the fact that she’ll just throw it away.
“Now,” I said, “Mr. Prospect, that’s not so bad. I mean from what your neighbors tell me, and please understand, I’m smiling when I’m saying this. According to what your neighbors say, $1 is no big deal. They tell me these 1100 acres of good fertile land under cultivation don’t belong to you and the bank. They belong to you. This beautiful home does not belong to you and the savings and loan. It belongs to you.
“But, according to your neighbors, you sure do hate to see something happen to one of them dollars. That’s not so bad until you realize that on that program, that every forty days, your wife will reach in and pull out a brand-new $20 bill out of the family treasure, and she will take that brand-new $20 bill, and she will tear it all to pieces and just throw it away.” I took out a $20 bill and tore it up.
When I tore that money up, cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and I asked him, “Mr. Prospect, what did you think when I tore up that bill?”
He said, “I thought you were crazy.”
“Mr. Prospect, whose money was that?”
“I hope it’s yours.”
“It is,” and I said “Yet you hated to see me tear up my money, didn’t you?”
“I sure did.”
“Mr. Prospect, don’t you feel even closer to the money that is your very own?”
“What are you getting at?”
I said, “Mr. Prospect, as I understand it, you’ve been married nearly twenty-three years.”
“Yes, it’ll be twenty-three years in August.”
“I don’t know how to multiply times twenty-three,” I said, “but I’m a whiz at multiplying times twenty. From what you have told me today, you believe that you could save fifty cents a day by having our set of cookware, or it’ll cost you fifty cents a day not to have it. That’s $182.50 a year. I want to switch it back to $180, because I can multiply times $180 real easy. That means, Mr. Prospect, that in twenty years, you have already invested—paid is a better word for it, wasted maybe—$3600 not to have a set of our cookware. Now you tell me you won’t invest $400 to have a set of the cookware.
“Mr. Prospect, that’s government thinking if I have ever seen it in my life, but that’s not so bad, because maybe you didn’t know about this until now. Now you’re saying to me, ‘Look, Mr. Ziglar, in the next twenty years, I’m going to spend another $3600 in waste for a total of $7200 not to have a set of the cookware, but I’m not going to give you $400 to own a set of the cookware.’”
I said—I’m smiling when I’m saying this—“Now, Mr. Prospect, I hate to threaten anybody, but in your case I’m going to make an exception. I’m going to ruin your reputation in this community if you don’t buy a set of my cookware, and the reason is very simple. These people, your friends, they think you are conservative, but me and you both know that any time a man will spend $7200 not to have a set of our cookware and won’t give $400 to own a set of the cookware, he is not conservative. He is a wild-eyed liberal for sure.”
It got awful quiet for a minute, and he asked something that really impacted my sales career. He said, “Mr. Ziglar, what could I tell my neighbors?” Very significant. You see, people buy for two reasons: for themselves and for other people. They might say it doesn’t make any difference what anybody else is doing. Don’t you believe it in most cases.
Why would he ask that question, and why must we include some logic and some facts for them to make their decisions on simply so they can tell their friends, relatives, and neighbors why they bought it? You see, this man had told the hostess when she invited him, “I’ll come eat the man’s food. I’m not going to buy no $400 set of pots.” The night of the demonstration, he was late arriving. When he walked in, they got to kidding him. “Hey, partner, I see you’ve come to buy that $400 set of pots.” You know how good friends kid each other.
He said, “I ain’t going to buy no $400 set of pots. I’ve come to eat the man’s food.”
Now he’s asking, “What can I tell my neighbors?” He’s painted himself in a corner. Many times, prospects do that. They paint themselves in a corner. They’ve told another salesman six months ago, “If I ever buy the machine, I’ll get it from you.”
They’ve even forgotten his name, or it might be another case where they’re legitimately in the corner. If we can get them out, the sale is a foregone conclusion. I knew the sale was mine if I could get the man out of the corner. “What will I tell my neighbors?”
“I’m going to give you some words to use,” I said, “and if you’ll do this, not only will your neighbors love you even more, but they will respect you even more. I’m going to go ahead and write this up, and I’m going to mark it paid in full because I know you’re not going to fool around paying interest since you’re a conservative individual,” and we both laughed when I said that.
“I’m going to give you the receipt written out across the top, paid in full, and I’m going to suggest that you take this and go to see each of your friends, and when you walk in, just wave the slip of paper. They’ll recognize it, because they have one the same color. When you walk in, be prepared. They’re going to razz you like you’ve never been razzed before. Just stand there and grin. Let them go ahead and do it.
“When they get through, here’s what you need to tell them. You look at them and say, ‘Yes, I clearly said I wasn’t going to get it, but when I made that statement, all I knew was the price. I had no idea what the benefits were, and when I realized it would be better for my family, that it would save my wife work, and for that matter would save me some money, and when I realized that I could not let my own stubbornness stand in the way of doing something for my family, especially since I had the money, I bit my tongue and went ahead and bought it.’
“Mr. Prospect,” I said, “they’ll love you more because it takes a big man to admit he made a premature decision. It takes an even bigger one to do something about it.”
The old boy sat there for fully a half minute. He slapped his leg. He got up and said, “You’re the doggonest fellow I’ve ever seen in my life,” and he headed back to the back bedroom. In the rural South, they keep the checkbook in the back bedroom chest of drawers, third one from the top.
An interesting thing about that particular incident: from that moment on, that old boy became one of my best friends and biggest supporters. As a matter of fact, every time I scheduled a demonstration down there, he would call up and ask the hostess who was coming. The hostess would give him the names, and he’d go down the list. He’d say, “Well, he can sell that one, he can sell that one. He won’t have any trouble with that one. Uh-oh, I don’t believe he can handle that one. I better go with him on that.”
He helped me sell an enormous amount. I believe fervently to this day that had he not seen that demonstration of that money coming apart, he never would have been a customer.
Now I know what you probably are thinking: “Yes, but Ziglar, I don’t sell cookware.”
That’s one of the important things about support material and training sessions that go with this training, and that’s the fact that you will be shown more methods of translating it to other situations.
For example, several years ago, we had to buy a new copier. It was long overdue. We figured mathematically that that little old thing we were using, because it was slow and wasted a lot of paper, cost us at least two hours a day. Even at two hours a day, back in those days, it would cost us a minimum of $5 an hour, and it really cost more than that.
So when you start multiplying, if you have $5 an hour, and you’re wasting two hours a day, you’re talking about $10 a day. You’re also talking about $50 a week. Then, if there are fifty weeks in the year, you are talking about $2500 a year that that ineffective, old machine was costing us.
A salesman came along selling a machine that was $10,000. Now I had to ask myself some questions. Do I want to go ahead and invest that $10,000?
Here is the way I mapped it out. If I do invest my $10,000, and assuming that’s all I have, then at that moment, I don’t have any money left, but I do have the machine, the copier.
A year from now, because it will save me that $2500, I now have $2500 of my money back, and obviously I have the machine. In two years’ time, I will have $5000 back, and I’ll have the machine. In three years, I will have $7500 back, and obviously I’ll have the machine. In four years’ time, I will have my full $10,000 back, and I will have that machine.
Let’s say I don’t invest in the new copier. Obviously my benefit is I’ve got my $10,000, but I have no machine. Now, a year later, I’ve only got $7500 because I have invested $2500 in paying that person the $5 an hour. I have, at the end of the first year, no machine. In two years’ time, I only have $5000 and no machine. In three years’ time, I only have $2500, and I have no machine. In four years’ time, I literally don’t have any of my money, and I have no machine.
Here’s the way I would wind it up. I would say, “Now, Mr. Prospect, here’s the decision that you have to make. Look down the road four years. For years from now, if you do invest, you’ll have $10,000 and the machine. If you don’t invest, you’ll have no money and no machine. As a prudent businessman, Mr. Prospect, which do you think is the wiser route to follow?” When you diagram things like that, people can follow you more easily.
If you noticed, we’ve done a lot of questioning. There are two principles for effective questioning. First of all, questions can be used immediately in the interview to set the stage for sales now and later.
As an example, in a furniture store, let’s say that you have a customer walk in and say, “I want to see a coffee table.” You know where the coffee tables are, so you head for that area. You take four or five steps, and you turn to the prospect and say, “Let me ask you. Did you have a specific purpose in mind for this coffee table, or would you like for it to blend in with the rest of your décor so you can get maximum mileage out of your furniture dollars?”
Let’s say you’re in a clothing store—same principle. A fellow walks in, he wants a jacket or a suit or whatever. You say, “Well, they’re over here.” You take a few steps, and then you turn to that individual and say, “Let me ask you. Did you want this suit to blend in with the rest of your wardrobe, or did you have a special occasion for it? In short, do you want to maximize your clothing dollars, or does this just meet one special need?”
You zero in on the future sale at the same time you’re concentrating on the present sale. Occasionally you’ll have a ridiculous request. Somebody might come in and say, “I’d like a four-poster water bed with a canopy.” The likelihood of that happening is pretty slim, but you need to find out if they’re serious. “I’m curious as to why you want this particular piece of furniture.” It might not be a legitimate request. You need to find out early.
In real estate, you’re showing a home, and here’s what you do. You could say to the prospect, “If this ended, you’re in the home with this magnificent living den and kitchen. It’s already exciting to see, isn’t it?” Or “If this house had nothing but this location, it would merit consideration, wouldn’t it?”
If you’re demonstrating a computer or a piece of equipment, you can ask, “If this were the only feature this machine had, it would be well worth owning, wouldn’t it?” You’re asking trial closes. You’re asking assumptive questions on occasion too, and a good assumptive close question would be something like this: “When we install the equipment, would you like me to demonstrate the major features again?” It could be something like, “Would you like for me to protect this for you by marking it sold while we check on terms and delivery?” Perfectly natural, normal questions.
“Would you like to have your own bank finance this, or would you prefer that we work out all of the details on it?” There are over 700 questions of a similar nature, which we have written out in “Secrets of Closing the Sale,” which is one bit of support material.
Many questions really are thinking questions and help to lead the prospect to the decision. For example, “If you saw that it was to your advantage to own this product, and the terms we work out are satisfactory, would you like to start enjoying the product immediately?” Trial close.
“Do you believe it’s wise to invest in solidly constructed equipment, which will give you long, trouble-free operation for the lifetime of the product?” A thinking question. “Would you agree that as a practical matter it is worth what it can do for you and not what you have to pay for it?”
Questions can be used in so many different ways. I vividly remember a number of years ago, I was scheduled to speak in Greenville, South Carolina. I’d written for a room reservation, but when I pulled into the parking lot there and saw all the traffic, I got a little nervous. When I walked in the front lobby, I knew I was in trouble, because there was a sign that said, “Traveling men, avoid Greenville, South Carolina the week of October 11 through 15. This is Textile Week.”
They tell me that during that week, you can’t get a room within fifty miles of Greenville, South Carolina. I walked up to the desk. I figured I really had to do something here, so I walked up to the desk, and I said, “My name is Zig Ziglar. Would you mind checking my mail, please?”
The lady was not impressed. “Mr. Ziglar, do you have a reservation?”
I said, “I certainly hope so. I wrote for it long ago.”
She said, “How long ago?”
“Oh, it’s been nearly three weeks.”
“Wait a minute, Mr. Ziglar,” she said. “We haven’t had an opening here in over a year. We book them from one year to the next.”
About that time, a little lady walked out from behind another counter, and she came over. The first clerk was new. She turned to the second one, and she said, “This is Miss Fortune.”
I said, “She doesn’t look like misfortune to me. She looks like good news all the way.”
The lady smiled very pleasantly and said, “Mr. Ziglar, ordinarily I am good news, but unfortunately today for you—”
“Wait a minute, ma’am,” I said. “Don’t say another thing. I have two questions I need to ask.”
She smiled pleasantly and said, “OK, what are they?”
“Question number one, do you consider yourself to be an honest woman?”
“Why, of course, I do.”
“All right,” I said. “Question number two. If the president of the United States were to walk through that door right there right now, and come up here and say to you, ‘I want a room for this evening,’ tell me the truth. Would you have a room for him?”
She grinned and said, “Now, Mr. Ziglar, you know perfectly good and well we’d have a room for the president of the United States.”
“Ma’am, you’re an honest woman,” I said. “I’m an honest man. You have my word for it. The president of the United States is not going to come through that door. I’ll take his room.” I promise you I slept there that evening.
Here is the rest of that story. The group I was speaking for had as its president the manager of that particular motel. He had been unable to get me a reservation in his own motel. He said there were no rooms. I also used it on at least two other occasions.
You can use questions in a lot of ways. Questions are important tie-downs to close the sale. The late Doug Edwards used to do things like this. When somebody would ask the question like, “Does this come in green?” If you just say yes, you still haven’t made any progress. Doug taught us to say, “Do you want it if it comes in green?”
When he responds yes to that question, he’s bought it. You nail it down with, “We can have it for you in three weeks, or if I put a rush order on it, I can get it in two weeks. Which would you prefer?”
Or someone might ask a realtor, “Do the draperies come with the house?”
“Do you want it if the draperies come with the house?” The professional answers a question with a tie-down. This is beautiful in red, isn’t it? The added weight gives much greater comfort, doesn’t it? The extra horsepower is a real bonus, isn’t it? The additional color gives it an added dimension, doesn’t it? This evening view should give you a lot of beautiful memories, shouldn’t it?
Isn’t, shouldn’t, this kind of thing. Each tie-down is emotionally moving the prospect toward a favorable decision. Incidentally, don’t use the word not. Instead, use don’t, can’t, isn’t, that kind of thing.
In alternative-choice closing, we always ask questions. Again, everybody sells. A parent says to the child, “Do you want to cut the grass or wash the windows?” The teacher to the student, “Do you want to settle for a B, or would you prefer to complete the assignment?” The physician to the patient, “Would you like to live longer, or keep on smoking?” The attendant to the car owner, “Would you like for me to rotate the tires and give you an extra 5000 miles or leave them as they are?” The patrolman to the speeder, “Would you like to pay the speeding ticket now, or do you prefer to go to court on the first of August?”
Question. Since all of us sell every day, doesn’t it make sense to learn how to do it more effectively? You should commit to memory hundreds of questions. You can use the question technique in all phases of life, but in closing, let’s look at two additional qualities of the professional salesperson.
He is appropriately dressed. You can’t play the role of success dressed in the costume of failure. This professional salesperson is a time miser. He uses that time.
One of my favorite stories concerns a young man I met when I was in England three years ago. His name is Mike Bagg, and Mike sells sales training. He had driven into this little suburb outside London from the town of Reading. He had thirty minutes before his next appointment.
He walked into this automobile dealership. It was at lunchtime. He asked the lady there where the managing director was, as they say over there. She said, “He’s across the street.” Mike walked across the street, walked in the office, and he said to the receptionist there, “I would like to see the managing director. Is he in?”
She said, “Yes, he’s in the back room.”
The managing director had heard Mike when he came in. He walked out, and he started to say something, and Mike said to him, “As the managing director of this company, I’m certain you’re always interested in looking for training that will enable you to make more sales and increase your profit margin considerably, aren’t you?”
The guy looked at him and said, “Young man, it’s lunchtime on Friday afternoon. I am very, very busy. Tell me why in the world would you take this particular time to come calling on me.”
Mike said he looked at him very calmly and said, “Do you really want to know?”
“Yes, that’s the reason I ask. I really want to know.”
Mike said, “I just drove in from Reading. I have thirty minutes before my next appointment. I decided to invest the thirty minutes instead of wasting it. I decided to call on a prospect. Isn’t that what you teach your salespeople to do with their time?”
Mike said the guy looked at him almost in awe and said, “Come on in, young man.” Mike left there in twenty-five minutes with a substantial order. Yes, the professional uses his time. When you use your time effectively, when you learn to ask questions, when you learn to get people involved in the transaction, you’re using some of the most important secrets in successful selling.