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OUR CORE  COMPETENCY

Definition: A Defining Capability or Advantage, Via Advanced Questioning Skills,
That Distinguishes & Differentiates  A Seller From Their Competitor, 
While Concurrently Building Credibility & Value With The Buyer

The Skill of Advanced Questioning Requires Multiple Competencies 

The days of Winging It  &  Can You Tell Me  questions have become passe. You just can't show up and see where the Conversation takes You. Buyers are looking for relevance & understanding. The first Seller to help them make sense of all the digital rhetoric on websites, may well get a big advantage.

The Required Competencies Are...

Intent

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Planning

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Curiosity

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Intent

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Purpose

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Structure

                         Planning: Advanced Questions Require A Proactive Approach

  • Understand the roles and responsibilities of the individuals being quired

  • Determine the objectives for the conversation 

  • Anticipate surprises that may arise during the conversation (new people, different agenda, objections, etc)

  • Working backward, think of 1 or 2 general questions, when answered, lead up to your first key question  

                              Curiosity: Without This Behavior You're Just Another Average Seller

  • Driven by truly wanting to solve a problem versus just selling something

  • Seek insights prior to problem arising, causation of trigger event, current status & consequences of actions,

  • Additionally, future state and payoffs

  • Extends the conversation beyond the scope of the problem revealing greater value, and potential innovations 

 Structure is comprised in a variety of perspectives like financial, operational, innovative, competitive, strategic
 Consider the type of question being asked and have a specific opening designed to excite - disrup - compare - analyze -etc

                        Intent: Being Viewed As Someone Who Understands The Buyers Business & Industry

  •   Viewed as being more relevant than any other competitive seller and also being a great listener

  •   Create an atmosphere of collaboration, that we're truly in this together 

  •   Broaden and Extend relationships through Operations, Management, Executive levels

                    Purpose:  By  End  of  Conversation,  Have  The  Buyer "Think - Feel - Know " Something  of  Value  &  Relevance

                 

This requires some forward thinking with emphasis on being "outcome focused" . When the conversation is over, what are the various ways You want to be viewed or remembered by the Buyer.  If you want to be remembered as being relevant, then what questions or statements must be presented to achieve your end result.

                     Structure: Thought-provoking questions don't happen by accident

  • Structure is comprised of perspectives, financial-technical-strategical-operational-innovative-competitive

  • Consider the type of question being asked - specific opening & use of illuminating words - focused topic 

   Execute These Competencies Well & You Will...

  • Be Remembered As Relevant  & Understanding

  • Have Easier Access To Key Stakeholders

  • Establish More Effective & Accurate Value Propositions

  • Be Better Prepared For Winning Negotiations

"The Art of Asking Great B2B Questions"

What We Teach

Sellers receive the requisite knowledge and increased functional capability to secure casual & critical data, to better understand issues & challenges that shape business requirements, to improve their status and position within the buying organization, to gain competitive advantage in negotiations, and to create distinction and differentiation as a seller via effective use of a broad range of advanced questioning styles and techniques.

 

One of the more recent Seller requirements is to actually help Buyers sort through competitive sites and related solutions. The shifting transition from personal selling to digital buying is one that will require routine & various other types of questioning.

                    Need another major reason why better questioning is so critical...

There is a behavior that more & more Buyers are assuming. I refer to it as:  Buyer-biased Behavior (B-cubed). Buyer-biased Behavior is defined as (3) very real, early buying cycle scenarios, that negatively impacts the buyer/seller relationship. #1, it has been established through empirical data that most buyers are predisposed to believe that sellers do not truly understand their business. When asked, “how do you absolutely know that Sellers don’t understand your business & it's related issues”, the Buyers responded with, “I can tell by the questions they ask, or don’t ask” and #2, Sellers are simply not very good at listening. #3 When asked what irritates Buyers most, the response was , “Sellers all sound the same and they ask the same questions”.  

What We Deliver

2Question, LLC understands that most people are visually oriented, and the number of different questions we work with varies significantly. To more easily remember the nature  of the questions and their intended objective, we've introduced "art work", from the famous to the unfamiliar, and both bring a lasting mental image to the mind and makes it easier to recall each type of question.

Here's where the critical aspects of VISION - INNOVATION - CONCEPTS - CREATIVITY - IDEAS - LEARNING

are injected into the Buyer/Seller relationship, serving to differentiate from competitive sellers and offerings.

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The Questions

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The Significant Role That Questions Play In Selling & Life

  • Most Everything That Exists Was An Answer To A Question

  • Human Nature Is More Drawn By Questions Than Statements

The Mona Lisa of Sales Skills, Higher-Order Questioning

  • Differentiating Yourself By The Questions You Ask

  • Asking Purposeful - Intentful - Thought-Provoking Questions

Getting 2 For 1 With Two-Sided Questions

  • Illuminating Both Buyer & Seller

  • Requiring Anticipation - Intent - Strong Word Selection

Going Broad & Deep With Funneling Questions

  • Specialized Approach To Guiding Conversations  

  • Questioning Broad To Narrow & Narrow To Broad

  Brainstorming In The Questioning Tree

  • Strategic Approach To Brainstorming Fresh Questions

  • The Process Improves The Quality

 Becoming More Persuasive

  • Be Humbly Aware This Isn't Easy 

  • ​Building Trust & Credibility Via Ethos - Pathos - Logos

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Significance of Buyer/Seller Compatibility

  • Role of Risk vs Reward

  • Do We Sell Like They Want to Buy

The 2 Faces of Lower Order questios are the most misused type of all the questioning types. Does thatmean we should limit their use or simply use with a specific purpose

The Two Faces of Lower Order Questions

  • The Bane Of Existence For Many Sellers

  • The Strategic Use Of Closed-ended Questions 

Socratic Questions For The 21st Century

  • Minimize Assumptions For Both Buyer & Seller

  • Utilizing Analytical & Comparative Questioning

  Stifling Competitors Via Isolation Questions

  • Securing High-Value Information 

  • Maximizing Your Unique Attributes & Benefits 

 Create The Eureka Moment With Futurist Questions

  • Take Buyers Outside Of Their Own Paradigm 

  • Asking Questions That Excite & Or Disrupt Thinking

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How To Structure & Frame Great Questions

  • Focusing On The Outcome 

  • Questioning With Intent - Purpose - Perspective  

I’m Asking Great Questions, Now What…Listen!

  • Why We're Poor Listeners 

  • Distinction Between Hearing & Listening

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 Is Culture More Significant Than We Knew

  • Understanding & Aligning Cultures

  • How Things Get Done vs What Gets Done

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Better Questions Require Better Words

          If Questions Are The Engine, Then Words Are The Fuel 

  The AMBIGUITY  OF WORDS Is The Biggest Impediment To Accurate  Understanding (besides not listening)!

                                               Questions require words and the words you choose really matter ! 

2Question addresses the selection of words in the context of structuring questions for greater effectiveness. The sequencing of questions, why and how they need to be connected and delivered for optimum effect is addressed.  What words are used to form questions that are designed to create an open and collaborative dialog?  Which action verbs are more effective than others in creating a sense of urgency?  Which words actually pull your buyer emotionally closer to you, and which have an opposite effect?  Which words actually lead a buyer to a preferred conversation versus an alternative conversation?

BE CAUTIOUS OF EVERYDAY WORDS

Both Buyers & Sellers frequently use a common everyday word thinking it's perfectly clear to each other. However, common words don’t necessarily have an equally shared meaning between Buyer & Seller. 

 

 Example: Consider a question in which you’re asking about “the frequency of occurrence of a problem”. Think about how many degrees of intensity are there between ‘Always’ and ‘Never’? What are the words that suggest less than always, but more than never?  How might that vagueness cause a miscalculation or a gap in your knowledge and your eventual point of view or recommendation?  Think about the high probability for assumptions to exist between, always – usually – frequently – often – sometimes – occasionally – seldom – rarely - hardly ever, and never.  In the mind of the Seller and Buyer, each of these common words likely carries a slightly different meaning.

 

Consequently, a slightly different approach, solution offering, and/or value proposition, may create just enough difference, to lose to your competitor. 

How Do We Blend Advanced Questioning
Into Your Sales DNA

  • Conduct Questioning Audit

  • Integrate With Your LMS

  • Include Sales/Mgmt Groups

  • Extend To Pre/Post Sales Groups

  • Draft Into Sales Process 

  • Draft Into Existing Tools

  • SCORM Compliant e-Learning

  • f2f - Virtual Led Sessions - Video - eBook

  • Integrates With Existing Methodologies

  • Incorporate Into Negotiations Process

  • Inside Sales

  • 2Question Reinforcement Tools 

50 / 50 Split Between Knowledge & Practical Application

How Will You Know Your Questions Are Working ?

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 Buyers Respond With...

  • "I've never considered it from that perspective before"

  • "How about accompanying me to my next meeting and ask the same questions"

  • "We should have been asking ourselves these questions 30 days ago"

  • "That's really interesting, I'd like to get a colleague's thoughts on that too." 

  • "I've never been asked that question before."

  • "That's intriguing, let me think about that before answering."

  • "Now that's a really good question."

  • "That question triggers a number of thoughts."

 When you are hearing these statements above, you're on your way to being Relevant, Different, Valued & most importantly... Remembered!

WANT IMPROVED NEGOTIATIONS ?

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It Requires... 
ASKING MORE - LISTENING BETTER - TELLING LESS

"BATNA" - Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement

 A Deeper Understanding of the Buyer's BATNA often minimizes or negates the need for a cheaper price !

There is a perfect synergy between asking better questions, having improved communications during the buying process & experiencing higher close rates

***Want More Information Regarding Our Negotiations Program?

**Be Sure To Use The  "Connect With Us" Page***

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