Even at a trade show event - you want to create a sense of urgency with the person in your booth. Your product could be a great fit for your prospect. It's within their budget, you've offered them the perfect discount -- it should be a slam dunk. But unless they feel a sense of urgency, your prospect won't buy. So, you should create some. Right?
Ask the right questions -- like the ones below -- and get your prospect to realize they’re unhappy or dissatisfied. And if your questions don’t lead them to those conclusions, accept they’re still in education mode and let your marketing department nurture them until the time is right.
This question helps you qualify them and start a discussion about how big they’d like to be in the future (and what’s currently standing in the way).
Remind the buyer of their overarching business goals. This is a good tie-in to how your product would play into their strategy.
I like the Challenger Sale method of teaching your prospect something new -- not only will your credibility and authority go up, but you’ll naturally uncover urgency. The buyer will want to act on this information ASAP.
The buyer might be focused on a different pain point than you. Use this question to figure out if they’re on the right track. Sometimes, prospects try to address the symptoms rather than the cause by mistake.
Asking why now is the right to solve this issue gives you an early glimpse into how much urgency your prospect already has. If it's not yet an urgent problem, you might lead them to realizing it is.
It might be their boss, themselves, or the company, but asking this question allows them to consider the human or business costs of not addressing this issue quickly.
Learn how much time they’ve spent investigating the issue. Hint: The more clearly they’ve isolated it, the more invested they probably are in fixing it.
Figure out just how persistent your prospect’s pain point is.
Chances are, the prospect will say it’s the latter. If it was easy to solve, they would have tackled it by now.
This question highlights the larger implications of what’s going wrong.
Get your prospect thinking about how widespread the effects are.
If your prospect says, “It’s part of my job,” then make sure you tie their overall performance to fixing this issue. If they say, “It’s a special assignment,” then there’s already genuine urgency: They need to identify an answer before a certain date.
This naturally leads the buyer to compare life with your product and life without. The second is usually much less appealing.
The prospect would probably love to see results right away. Their answer will help them realize why time is of the essence.
Once you’ve pinpointed a major opportunity to help, urgency will spring up naturally.
Knowing the buyer’s individual motivators can make or break the deal.
When the prospect’s boss is happy, they’re happy. Connect the dots between your solution and their supervisor.
It’s far easier to stick with the status quo than make a change, even if the long-term ramifications could sink the prospect’s business. With this question, you’ll get them to come to terms with the dangers of ignoring the issue.
This question turns you into the prospect’s partner, instead of just their rep. It also helps you pinpoint how your product can help them look great at the office.
Along similar lines as #17, this question reveals why the buyer is personally invested in finding a solution.
Most professionals put up with annoying or deleterious pain points. As soon as you show the prospect there’s a better, easier way, they’ll be more eager to buy.
Get them to zoom out and visualize the impact on the wider team.
This question makes the buyer envision a world where they have time, energy, and resources for the tasks or initiatives they’re interested in.
Once you learn what’s driving your prospect up the wall, you can position your product accordingly.
This is another way of learning how the pain point is interfering with or obstructing their day-to-day work.
If the CEO cares about an issue, your prospect will too.
Figure out which issues the buyer doesn’t have an easy answer to.
While not every company uses internal knowledge base or a wiki, asking those who do about the most common themes can help you pinpoint the most exciting, visible, or challenging things they’re facing.
Most industries are. Capitalize on your prospect’s awareness that they need to act to maintain their edge -- or gain one in the first place.
Figure out who’s nipping at your prospect’s heels, then show them how your solution will widen the gap in their favor.
Mitigating (or even eliminating) the inefficiencies in the buyer’s department would be a huge win. Open their eyes to the possibility of a fix.
Whether the answer is yes or no, this question works. If your prospect has, they’ll be eager to take precautions so it doesn’t happen again. If your prospect hasn’t, the wheels will start turning: Wow, it would be really bad if 20% of our business vanished in one stroke.
Get the buyer to vocalize the negative effects, which will drive their desire to avoid the catastrophe even higher.
Chances are, your prospect would love to find a differentiator that would save them from race-to-the-bottom pricing. You just need to explain why your product is that differentiator.
If their customers are asking for something your prospect's business can't currently offer, that's asking for a competitor to fill a gap. If you can get your prospect thinking about what they don't have and how you can help them get it -- that's a good way to inspire urgency.
Hearing from someone who got fantastic results will spur your prospect to the finish line.
If it’s too early in the sales process for references, suggest a knowledge-sharing conversation instead. You’re still connecting the buyer with a satisfied customer -- but their shared experiences are the focus, not your product.
The nice thing about this technique? Not only is it helpful for the prospect and your customer, but at some point during the conversation they’re bound to bring up your solution.
Test your prospect’s commitment to act with this question. If they say they’re not ready, don’t be pushy -- instead, ask what else they’d need to make a decision.
Sales consultant Jeff Hoffman encourages reps to close this way. Normally, the buyer says they’ll need more time -- at which point you say, “Okay, can you do [preliminary step] by that date?” They’ll say yes, and now you’ve gotten a concrete agreement to make progress on the deal within the week. Boom.
(Adjust the date based on your sales cycle. If it usually lasts two weeks, ask if they can sign the proposal that day. If it lasts 10 to 12 months, ask if they can sign the proposal in three weeks.)
Make sure your prospect’s expectations align with reality. You may need to accelerate the sales process to meet their timeline.
Get a firm deadline for the purchase. Explain to the prospect you should shoot for a few weeks or months before this deadline to protect against delays.
For prospects affected by seasonality (like education, tourism, and entertainment), it can be critical to get a solution in place while business is relatively quieter.
Fixing a problem earlier rather than later is almost always a good thing. The best part about this question is that the buyer puts those benefits in their own words.