10 Tough Questions To Ask Prospects

Are you asking your prospects the wrong questions? When most sales reps are developing a B2B sale, they limit questioning to generic issues like which products the prospect is currently using. Here's a better idea: ask questions that reveal if the prospect is truly qualified to buy and how the buying decision will be made.

Here are ten sample questions, adapted from material provided by Keith Rosen, author of Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions.

1. How does your company purchase products of this type?
2. How does your company make the decision to buy?
3. What are the organizational relationships that influence the decision?
4. Who are the people involved and what ego issues come up?
5. If you don't buy at this time, what remedial actions do you plan to take?
6. How will your current vendors react to the possibility you'll buy from us?
7. What are the concerns or roadblocks could crop up down the road?
8. What are the timely and relevant issues that are going on internally?
9. What is the overall mood of the company and its leaders?
10. Who else in your company should I be presenting to and following up with?

This is not to say that product-level info is useless. But why bother to probe for that data if the opportunity isn't real?

READERS: Any other useful information that's worth asking about?