terrible questions

Avoid these 2 questions on your demo and value prop calls:

❌ "Any questions?"

They'll usually answer no.

❌ "Does that make sense?"

It's condescending.

These 10 alternatives will help better open up your customer:

1. How does what you're currently doing compare to this?

2. You stated Y is your biggest challenge. How would this help (if at all)?

3. How do you see yourself using this part of the product?

4. You mentioned your colleague (name). How do you imagine him/her using this?

5. What was most relevant from what I showed here?

6. What would stop you from using this?

7. How does this compare to other solutions you've looked at?

8. How do you imagine your team using this?

9. You mentioned Z was a goal for you. How could this help achieve that (if at all)?

10. Who else from your team would be interested in seeing this?

You’ll notice the “if at all” a few times. This gives buyers a way out as they HATE to be cornered or pushed.

Here's a bonus question to identify the people who will screw up your deal:

11. Who from your team will be most opposed to using this?

Finally, I was included in an incredible collection of the top 100 LinkedIn posts on sales of 2024 which you can view here.