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Have you ever picked up the phone to call a prospective customer and had your stomach tie itself in knots? You ask the usual opening questions and get silence, hesitation or a polite brush-off. It’s frustrating, draining and absolutely unfruitful.
By the end of this article, you will learn to replace complicated, high effort queries with strong ‘assumptive problem’ enquiries that get your prospects enthusiastic to talk and ready to buy.
The reality is, many of the popular questions require the prospect to do a lot of mental heavy lifting. When you ask them broad questions like, “Are you satisfied in your present position?” or, “Have you got any problems?” you are placing the full burden on them to analyse their own business and to fabricate a justification for talking to you.
Most people are busy and don’t just sit around and actively think about their pain points until someone points them out. If you push a prospect too hard, they will automatically say ‘No, we are alright’. It reinforces your past difficulties, and you need a smarter technique. Prospects rarely tell you about their inner struggles.
Great responses are all about making your prospect do less hard thinking. You want to give them a problem and get their reaction to the problem, not ask them if they have a problem.
Suppose your competitor has longer delivery periods, but your company is known for its lightning-fast distribution of time-sensitive supplies. Rather than the old question of “Are you happy with your current supplier’s delivery times,” you paint a picture of operational anarchy.
You might be saying to yourself, “What do you do on your line when a critical part is late and you have a whole team of people standing around waiting?” Suddenly your prospect isn’t thinking about a generic vendor. They recall the exact stress and expense impact they encountered last month amid a supply chain delay. They are hooked immediately because you have reflected back their reality and not forced them to do the hard work of identifying it themselves.
It is common to hesitate to employ this method due to the fear of making assumptions or seeming arrogant. You may be concerned about talking about a hard circumstance and upsetting the prospect or being overly forceful.
To overcome this barrier, consider that you already know the baseline requirements of the business if you’ve done your homework and are calling the right people. You just help them see those difficulties so they may get the full value of your solution.
Then take one of your current opening questions and re-phrase it in an assumptive “What happens when…” structure and try it on your very next call.
Want a cold calling script that fits your business? Request a quote and we’ll help you build a practical script and question set your team can use on their very next call.
Paul Puckridge is an Australian corporate educator, course creator and writer who helps sales teams win more business without resorting to pushy tactics. He created Cold Calling Power, a short, practical workshop that shows sales professionals how to uncover new opportunities within their existing territories by building ethical cold calling and cold emailing into their everyday sales and account management routines.
Paul works directly with sales teams, sharing strategies and tactics that hold up in today’s fast‑changing B2B landscape. His sessions range from lunch and learns through to half and full day workshops, delivered in person or via MS Teams for sales meetings and conferences.
To bring Paul in for your next sales meeting or conference, email paul.puckridge@gmail.com.
