First of all, sales have not stalled. Businesses are still purchasing goods and services that ensure that their business will continue to thrive. Corporate Canada was responsible for much of the growth in 2011, with business spending intentions up 5% year-over-year to $15.6 billion. Source: Financial Post)

So when interacting with your clients and clients-to-be there are three considerations:

1. Find out what they NEED to stay in business and give it to them (for a fee of course). In addition to asking open-ended questions, ask “High-Gain Questions”. There are 4 types:

Evaluative – Comparative based.
e.g. Compared to last year, how are you meeting the needs of your customers?

Analytical – Calculation based.
e.g. If you were able to increase your market share by 5% within 6 months, how would that impact your bottom line?

Speculative – Future focused.
e.g. Imagine that you have no limitations on your budget, the sky is the limit, what would you do differently?

Emotive – Emotion based.
e.g. If your largest contract with XYZ Co. was cancelled, how would that impact your business?

2. Differentiate yourself from your competition. Keeping existing customers is paramount to anyone’s business success. When you ask High-Gain Questions it enables your client-to-be to bring you up to speed with their changes. These types of questions are exceptional at positioning you as more valuable than your competitors.

3. Inspire them to commit now. Play into people’s hesitation to commit. If your solution is $10,000 but they have little trust that your solution will work, suggest they start with a piece of the solution. Then, schedule an appointment to evaluate the results.

Stay tuned for more….