There are several categories of probes or questions that sales professionals use. These are open, closed, thinking, and then a closed probe to confirm the existence of a need. Open probes allow the customer to respond freely to share a substantial amount of information. Sometimes this information needs to be clarified and filtered to determine the most important facts. Closed probes limit the prospect to factual information via a choice of alternatives, a single quantifiable fact or direct information about the prospects situation. Thinking probes are like the cartoon characters that we see in the comics or funny papers. These of probes that require the customer to think. In the funnies or comic strips the representation that is shown in a dotted bubble is a thinking probe. The prospect has to put information together, process it and give you a reply that is determined for you and in most cases has never been considered before by the prospect. SO THE SALES PROFESSIONAL is receiving new information - VALUABLE!!! Finally we mentioned a closed probe to confirm a need. Many prospects sound as if they desire something yet they stop short of saying so using what we call the "language of needs" (i.e. I want, I need, I have got to have, Our goal is to... etc.) so the Sales Professional fills in the need statement in the form of a closed probe that confirms the existence of a need. An example would be - "So you need a way to convert the document into a PDF. Is that correct?" When the prospect answers YES the need is confirmed.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 13:14:31 +0000
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