Customer Reviews

Socratic Selling: How to Ask the Questions That Get the Sale

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Most salespeople are trained to give a spiel, answer objections, try to close, and keep closing. This book argues that that approach will not be very productive. The book argues that the customer expects this to be a buying experience with the customer in charge. The standard sales approach is primarily annoying to the customer.

First, I should share with you that I spent three years at Harvard Law School where almost all classes used the Socratic teaching method. From that experience, I can certainly tell you that being asked hard Socratic questions is tough on the person answering the questions. So I was immediately taken by this book's emphasis on asking easy-to-answer Socratic questions that would help the person think through their own issues.

The Socratic method is simply a way of asking questions that permits the answerer to develop her/his own point of view. It is intended to be helpful, but it can feel like being put on the spot unless the questions are very easy. (An example of an easy question is "What is the worst experience you have had in buying these products in the past?") (An example of a hard question is "What would it take for you to buy from me today?" asked in the first 2 minutes of the meeting.)

Mr. Daley reports on a survey with 300 experienced salespeople and 400 buyers. They agreed that the main problem with salespeople is that they talk too much. In response, Mr. Daley advocates a system of active listening (80 percent of the time), interspaced with questions designed to help the customer (rather than manipulate the customer). I think he really has something here. I thought back to my most successful sales meetings with consulting clients, and essentially these meetings contained all of the elements described here.

Here's an overview of the suggested process:

1-explain what you've prepared to discuss 2-invite the customer to speak about his/her interests in that subject 3-offer an immediate benefit for this sharing (such as being willing to direct your comments to the customer's needs as just expressed) 4-ask for more detail about what the customer says 5-check for urgency and locate potential deadlines 6-find out what is bothering them the most in this area 7-find out what motivates them the most to do something in this area 8-summarize what they have said 9-get the customer's agreement with the summary 10-make a recommendation 11-answer the customer's questions and objections about your recommendation 12-create appropriate closes for the customer's needs.

Three Socratic principles are proposed:

1-Always have and show respect for the customer (especially by active listening) 2-Help the customer think (the book has questions to help you do that) 3-Help the customer to make a decision (the book has more questions to help in this area, as well).

I think that virtually any salesperson can master this approach within 3 months if practiced diligently. I also suspect that your sales will improve if you do, especially if your customers have problems that they need you to help them solve. The larger the economic value of your sale, the better this approach should work. It should be most helpful in selling intangibles like services.

Good luck in overcoming your misconception stall about how to sell!

I'v long been a student of questioning techniques and this book was a disappointment and I'm glad I didn't pay full price for it. Questions are critical tools in sales -- but there are much better books on the use of questions than this book --which is light on technique and long on story.

I recommend Tom Hopkin's classic "How to Master the Art of Selling" for a great exposition about the use of different types of questions (open, closed, etc.).

The best book I've ever read on selling technique is "Unlimited Selling Power: How To Master Hypnotic Selling Skills" by Donald Moine for this reason:

55% of all communication is non-verbal (body language)
38% is how you say it (tone, rate, pitch)

which leaves a whopping 7% verbal (magic words)

You are only using 7% of your ammunition with verbal techniques.
I wouldn't choose this book to learn about the 7%.

One of the best questions you can ask at the start of a selling interview is:

WHAT IS YOUR OUTCOME FOR OUR MEETING TODAY?

and one of the best questions to find out what your prospect wants the product to do for them is:

LET'S SUPPOSE IT'S ONE YEAR DOWN THE ROAD, WHAT WOULD HAVE HAD TO HAVE HAPPENED FOR YOU TO KNOW THIS WAS THE RIGHT DECISION FOR YOU?

and to find out why someone is not wanting to buy your product or service is a personal favorite I made up:

What's not there for you?

Try these and will begin to tune into your customer's true reality -- not your perceived reality of him or her.

Do you find it hard to get customers to let you in on their decision making process?

I found the ideas in this book very helpful both in and out of sales situations. It helped me learn to listen to people a lot better; perhaps it can be as helpful to you?

I had to read this book recently and I found it exceedingly tedious and boring. Of course you really shouldn't expect much more from a book about how to sell. I work in sales and most of what you read in this book, you will find are easily taught methods that are somewhat commonplace in the sales industry. It should be easily understood that salespeople should listen to the customer rather than just talking over their customer. Questions are also well understood as a method for determining how a product will benefit a customer and enable the sale. Overcoming objections should be another obvious attribute that a salesperson has to learn and pick up. Most companies teach these skills already to their sales force.

This is the only book I have come across in several years that focuses specifically on how to do Consultative Selling. Most other books focus on closing the sale, not building a "Most Trusted Advisor" relationship.

After finishing this book I've learned the basic principle of being an active listener and asking the "right" questions to involve the client. Now the hard part, implementing those principles. This book does a decent job of describing techniques to do just that but this transformation of sales seems like it could take a bit of time. Now I understand it's simply a matter of changing habits but as a sales trainer, I'm not sure salespeople will have the patience and buy in to see this through. In summary, valuable lessons, but not sure they will work for the average salesperson.

This is a shockingly good book. The methodology is tried and true, and is consistient with many of the better and more cutting edge sales strategies and approaches being used today. The Socratic method really places the customer at the center, and allows them to arrive at the sales/purchasing decision throuugh targeted questioning, active listening and emotional response.

The chapters are short and easy to read, with phenomenal summaries at the end of each. A good read!

When I was taking teaching courses, we learned the best way to teach was by making the students "teach themselves" through asking simple questions and having students arrive at their own conclusions. It was called "guided learning". The same principle is used in this form of selling which is great for at least two reasons. First- Everybody likes a choice. Nobody wants to be told what they have to do, and be locked in a corner. Here, you ask questions which sort of leave the choices up to the buyer and so #2- he feels more satisfied about doing business with you. I HAVE been to certain places for example, calling to inquire about buying a car, where I now know the salesman was TRYING to use this method. However I found his questions were canned.. not listening and asking and trying to steer me towards an unsuitable car when I had my own reasons for not wanting that one. A short but good book overall.

My work requires a lot of reading, and so, I buy a lot of books. However, I do not read the books in the order that I buy them, I read them in the order that is relevant for what I am reading for. I started reading Socratic Selling after reading the book "Financial Intelligence For IT Professionals". The sequence is meant to enable me to get the most from every book. In this case, the strategy worked wonders. Especially when the book is emphasizing the need for the sales person to always try to keep the quoted price and increase the value given, instead of decreasing the price just to get the order.

I bought the Socratic Selling book for two reasons. To increase my ability to lead through asking questions, and to increase my sales skills. The Socratic Selling book equips you with three skills. In addition to the two I have mentioned, it enables you to build your listening skills. I strongly recommend this book. It is the most complete book I have ever read. I got from it more than I paid for, and more than I expected.

While I found this book helpful in the general sense of the word, it was aimed solely at the "outside" sales rep who sees his/her customer face-to-face. It provided good reminders for seasoned sales reps, but wasn't revolutionary in it's ideas of selling. It was a short read - no more than 4-5 hours. It demonstrated very good closing tactics and objection handling, but all of this is after you make contact. It didn't explain how to get past the secretary screen, how to get the appointment or even how to find out who the decision maker is. Most of the sale, if not all of it, is done over the phone and that was completely overlooked.