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Using Anxiety Questions to Finish the Year Strong
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Ever had one of these prospects?
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Feel you’re running around in circles?
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What is an anxiety question?
How to create good anxiety questions
Three key opportunities to use an anxiety question
Five specific tactics to improve prospect engagement throughout the sales cycle
Today’s ObjectivesObjectives for today
© 2016 ValueSelling Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
Designed to surface customer’s view of current conditions.
Aimed at getting prospect to momentarily experience the consequences of not having your product or service.
Verifies shared understanding and confirms what we heard customer say.
Raises issues that didn’t surface on their own. Used to differentiate and create need for your products and services.
Anxiety
Confirming
Probing
Open
Key question types
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anx·i·e·ty/aNGˈzīədē/ nouna feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.
© 2016 ValueSelling Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
Anxiety questions are designed to:
Cause an emotional responseOpen an unexpected dialogueShift the prospect’s thinking purposefully and productively
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Anxiety?
What happens if...
What’s the impact of...
How does this affect me...
Have we thought of everything...
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Anxiety questionsMay be only way some prospects will respond to you, your product or service
Aimed at getting prospect to momentarily experience consequences of not having your product or service
Should create an emotional impact or an emotional response with the buyer:– Tune into their motivation,
their WII-FM!
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“What is the impact of not meeting your target this year?”
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PollHow many of you are using anxiety questions today?
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Creating anxiety questionsFirst:
Think of a feature of your product and capabilities it enables Relate those capabilities to difficulties your prospect is facing, or would like to avoid
Then: Create lead-in that relates to consequences of your prospect not having your product's capabilities"Have you ever wondered how to improve/achieve ....” "Have you ever wondered if there was a way to avoid/prevent …”"I understand you are under pressure to control costs; have you thought about if there were a way to solve _____(insert problem your capability solves) it could improve your return on investment and reduce overall costs?”
Follow a positive response with: “We’ve got some experience in this area, can we talk about how you're dealing with this now?”
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Anxiety question test points1. Does it cause anxiety?
2. Does it get them to think about the future?
3. Does it risk rapport?
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14
Anxiety questions should be…
Not confrontational, but instead educational or instructional
Knowledge / expertise-based
Respectful
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When to use an Anxiety Question
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Maintaining Engagement
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Five tactics to maintain engagementPrepare
Focus on customer / prospect needs, wants, and process
Listen actively
Never leave without the next meeting
Create a timeline, beginning with the first meeting
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An excellent anxiety question
“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water
or do you want a chance to change the world?”Steve Jobs to John Sculley (Pepsi executive), 1983
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“You’ve gotta ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’…..
- Clint Eastwood, Dirty Harry…..Well, do ya, punk?”
© 2016 ValueSelling Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
SummaryAnxiety questions– Get prospects to momentarily experience the consequences of
not having your product/service
Follow an anxiety question with a positive response– “Can we discuss some options for dealing with this issue….?”
Use anxiety questions to– Uncover additional problems
– Disrupt prospect’s view of the solution
– Create urgency
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Questions
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October 6, 2016 | 11:00AM PDT
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October 20, 2016 | 10:00AM PDT
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