The bottom-line reason that traditional sales tactics are inefficient and ineffective is that the seller is motivated by an attitude; of “whatever it takes “to push product out the door in order to make a quick sale. Typically, the seller knows a lot about the product’s features and benefits, has a good story to tell, and persistently overcomes objections until the deal is closed. Yet many sellers seldom delve deeply enough to uncover the prospect’s true motivation for doing business, especially from the buyer’s perspective.

You can dramatically increase your closing ratio by understanding that prospects buy for their reasons—not yours. The art of the sale is in developing the-desire-to-acquire-in-your-buyer! People buy emotionally, then rationally justify their decisions. Touting features and benefits followed by applying price pressure, actually sets up sales resistance, which then leads to a frustrating conclusion for both buyer and seller.

Easily close more profitable sales and the lifetime value of a repeat customer by asking open-ended questions first. You are naturally curious to find out what problems the prospect has that matches up with the benefits of your product or service. Here are some examples of open-ended questions:

• How long has this been a problem?
• What have you done so far?
• When did the problem first happen?
• What is important for you to do right now?

Highly paid sales professionals are problem solvers positioning themselves as trusted advisors, rather than product pushers. The motivation for the prospect to do business comes when the prospect acts on your advice to immediately solve an important problem. (That’s right; the customer is buying you and your understanding of his problem first!)

Nick Murray, the famous financial sales coach, says it best: “People don’t care to know, until they know you care.”

Pain-problems are stronger motivators than gain-problems. Most sales messages are geared toward what a customer has to gain in the transaction, and are met with skepticism because the customer is afraid that she might be disappointed in the promised future result. Whereas, pain-problems demand immediate satisfaction, otherwise if nothing is done the pain will continue to get worse.

No pain—no sale.

You, the professional seller, must know your product’s features, benefits, the market it serves, and be knowledgeable about your competition too.

Nonetheless, you will be spinning your wheels, unless you develop the skill of asking the right questions to uncover your prospect’s buying reasons and position yourself as a problem-solver; not a problem-giver.