Hey Reader,

Here's your quick Discovery insight for the week.

Most people won't tell you this...

But asking negative impact questions could seriously backfire on you and derail the sales conversation with your prospect.

So, allow me to share when NOT to ask prospects negative impact questions, as well as HOW + WHEN to correctly do so:)

FIRST, here are the TWO times when it is DANGEROUS to ask negative impact questions on a call.​
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(1) Too early in the call:​
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It’s dangerous to ask negative impact questions UNLESS you have established a solid understanding of the prospect's situation.
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Avoid creating mistrust or provoking the prospect by too abruptly probing for implications.
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It’s IMPERATIVE to warm the call up with either high level process / situation questions or raising issues you have heard from clients, before asking about negative impacts of your prospect's business.
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(2) In sensitive areas:​
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It’s always risky to delve into implications in sensitive areas such as organizational politics, personal issues, or decisions that the buyer has recently made.

Use your professional judgement and be sensitive about topics that may be too sensitive of a topic to the prospect.

SECOND, here is HOW to BEST to ask negative impact questions.​
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Many inexperienced sellers make the MISTAKE of asking the prospect to COME UP WITH possible negative impacts by repeatedly asking just ONE type of general negative impact question such as,
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​🚫 "What are the implications of that problem?" 🚫

That's NOT what we want.

To be effective, you need to HELP the prospect see the seriousness of the problem, by PREPARING some negative impact topics you have heard from other clients.
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The following phraseology might help you:

"What effect do you feel that might have on ____?"

"How often would you say that could potentially cause ____?"

"To what extent does that ever lead to ____?"​
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You MUST be able to fill in the blank for your prospect, taking the responsibility to raise the potential negative impacts your prospect might want to think about.

There are many other ways to do so, but this is a very easy way to help you start off on the right foot.

Stay curious,

-Charles M.
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👉👉👉 - Don't forget, you are welcome to check out my Actionable Discovery Guide, and take 20% off the price with the password WELCOME. It's everything I teach on becoming a Discovery master:)

🔥🔥🔥 - You're also welcome to SHARE this newsletter with your colleagues, and spread the insights!

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