Paul Sloane is at motivational speaker Kevin Kelly’s Sell Your Story conference

In this video, Speaker Paul Sloane says that there was research done in the States about the difference between good salespeople and exceptionally good salespeople. What they found was what the good salespeople did was – they found a prospect, qualified them, and open the talk with some general small talk. Then they would ask questions until they establish a need. And when they found the need, they would introduce their product and highlight the benefits. Then most would ask for the order and that worked most of the time.

Then they looked at the exceptional salespeople – the top 1% – the really high-performers. They asked what do these people do that is different. Again they found a prospect and did some qualifying. They asked some questions and uncovered a need.

Then they did something different. They didn’t introduce the product. Instead they kept asking about the need. They kept asking questions and the more questions. The more they asked the bigger the size of the problem they were solving was getting. Thus the more valuable the solution was.