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Want to make your presentations instantly better? Then invest some time and change your closed ended, weak closing statements and questions into powerfully persuasive assumptive statements that lead your buyer to make the decision you want them to make. Assumptive questions are just that – they assume an answer rather than ask it, and in doing so, they cut through any hesitation or resistance a prospect is likely to put up. In addition, a good assumptive question also heads off any smokescreen objection a prospect might try to hide behind.
If you look at your presentation carefully enough, you’ll find many opportunities to replace closed ended questions with assumptive ones. Here are some examples to get you started:
Change: “Do you have any questions for me?”
To: “What questions do you have for me?”
Change: “Would you like to get more business?”
To: “How much more business would you like to get?”
Change: “Do you think you would get more traffic (or leads) from using this?”
To: “How much more traffic (or leads) do you think you’d get using us?”
Change: “Do you think your other (departments/locations/etc.) could benefit from this?”
To: “How many other (departments/locations/etc.) would benefit from this?”
Change: “Do you have a budget for this?”
To: “What kind of budget do you have for this?”
Change: “Do you think your partner/manager/corporate would agree with this?”
To: “Why do you think your partner/manager/corporate would agree with this?”
Change: “Does this make sense to you?”
To: “Tell me, what part of this makes the most sense to you?”
Change: “Is this something you’d like to go ahead and try?”
To: “Let’s go ahead and get you started…”
Change: “What do you think your manager will say?”
To: “How do we get your manager to say yes to this?”
Change: “Are you the ultimate decision maker on this?”
To: “And besides yourself, who else would be making the final decision on this?”
Change: “Is your (current solution) providing all the leads you need?”
To: “What would you like to most improve with your (current solution)?
As you can see, nearly any open ended question can be turned into an assumptive one. And do you see how much more suggestive and powerful they are? Go through your qualifying script, your closing script and your rebuttal scripts and look for opportunities to transform your closed ended questions into powerful and effective assumptive ones. And then watch as you gain more control over selling situations and begin eliminating the objections and stalls that you may be creating right now…