Have you ever used this question yourself? You want to be compassionate and affirm your prospect understands what you are saying. But in reality, you are making things worse.
It’s a dumb question. Don’t ever ask that question during your demo!
You put yourself in a position of weakness. Asking that question creates uncertainty on you and about your expertise. You are supposed to be the expert of what you are presenting. ‚Does that make sense“ implies you have not been accurate or don’t know how to sell your solution.
You are questioning your prospect’s ability to understand what you are saying. And even if your clients don’t get what you are saying, they will hardly ever respond with ’no‘ and reveal their lack of understanding. They don’t want to look stupid.
You are not gathering any further customer insights. It is a closed question. What we want are new customer insights to re-position our solution and stimulate a discussion. In sales, never ask questions you are not expecting an answer to.
Use open questions instead to affirm your prospect is still with you and gather further insights:
- Before I move on, I’d love to hear your feedback.
- Does that resonate with your current way of doing things?
- Is this any different from how you are doing XYZ today?
- How does that sound to you?
These questions will make your prospect think and process the information you have shared. Responses are highly valuable to re-position your value prop and identify any misunderstanding early on in the process.
It’s a simple but powerful hack to increase your demo performance and client engagement. What is your favourite question to get around this fluff phrase?
