When you think about salespeople, what are the first words that come to mind? With this question, Education Day speaker Diane Ciotta began her session at ASI Show Chicago titled “Capitalize on Collaboration: Understanding Your Clients’ Needs.” Attendees answered back with clichéd labels like pushy, sleazy and dishonest. Ciotta then asked how people think of consultants. The answers were much more positive.

“People will make an investment in a consultant because they believe they’re helpful,” Ciotta said. “It should be the aim of every salesperson to sell professionally and with integrity. It’s so important to build relationships and become a partner with clients.”

Ciotta made the case that the best consultative salespeople first ask questions and then make recommendations. Taking this solutions-based approach, instead of simply pitching products reps want to sell, brings value to the process that customers can’t ignore. “You want to put your focus on the customer and create credibility and trust,” said Ciotta.

Ciotta strongly endorsed using open-ended questions when talking with customers and prospects. Ciotta used an exercise to drive home her advice. She put this sentence up on a PowerPoint slide: “The boy was afraid to go home because of the man in the mask.” She then told attendees to try to determine why the boy was scared – but they could only open ask closed-ended questions. The audience then asked about clowns, firefighters, doctors, superheroes – when in reality the boy was afraid to go home because he was on a baseball field and didn’t want to be tagged out. “If you could’ve used open-ended questions, you would’ve gotten to the answer a lot quicker,” Ciotta said.

Ciotta said asking open-ended questions is one part of her “questioning matrix” – a tool she’s developed to help her own clients improve at selling. The other three sections are: use a process of elimination; offer a comfortable investment range; and focus on the results.

Ciotta gave some context to each. The sooner you can eliminate products or services that customers don’t need, she said, the faster you’ll get to what does matter to them. She also suggested that sales professionals should be sensitive about pricing, and not bury the topic. “Too often, salespeople wait to determine what they want to sell and then the price is high,” Ciotta said. “There’s sticker shock and customers get embarrassed. They don’t want to admit they can’t afford it.” It’s far better, she added, to position a product as a way to solve a problem or build brand exposure.

Finally, speaking about results, Ciotta put a picture of a drill on the screen. She then said: “Years ago, I read a Sears study that a million people bought drill bits in a year, but not one of them actually wanted a drill bit. You know what they really wanted? They wanted a hole.” Ciotta’s point? Understand the true need of a customer and then help satisfy it.