Make It All About Them: Winning Sales Presentations

8   Anticipating and Answering Questions

The questions that clients ask, the manner in which salespeople address them, and the answers that they provide can make or break a deal. The question-and-answer component of the sales presentation is the most difficult for which to prepare, because it forces us to deal with the unknown. We can never be certain what clients will ask, why they ask it, and whether our answer will satisfy them.

Let's first take a look at what motivates clients to ask questions in a sales presentation:

• To engage in the discussion (they want to dialogue with you and participate in the meeting)
• To elicit or clarify information (they want to better understand you and your offer)
• To test your knowledge or to see how you will respond to pressure (they want to see whether you are credible and what you will be like to work with)
• To compare you to the competition (they are looking for how your answer will be different)
• To look and feel smart (in front of you, their colleagues, or both)
• They feel they should ask questions (i.e., it is expected of them, by either you or their colleagues, managers, and/or employees)

There are two components we should consider when we answer a question: what we say (the content) and how we say it (the skill). Of the two, the what tends to be the easiest to address. While there are typically some gnarly questions—and occasionally one or two that stop us in our tracks—we can usually plan for these in advance and figure out the best responses. ...