Training Tip Tuesday: Practicing the Right Questions to Uncover Your Ideal Client

Last week’s Training Tip clarified who your Ideal Clients are. You have now memorized those 4 Key Attributes and the Red Car syndrome is proving true. In the past 7 days, Ideal Clients have shown up in places you never noticed before. Today we want to address another element that concerns your 4 Key Attributes. How can you use that list of qualities and find even more Ideal Clients? Let’s begin with a real-world situation.

You have just entered a networking event and the room is full of potential Ideal Clients. We will call them suspects in this example. Are you going to fall back on your old ways and assume everyone in the room is your Ideal Client? Or are you going to put that list of 4 Key Attributes to use?

You know the correct answer:

4 Key Attributes

But what do you do with them? You spent some time memorizing them. Do you walk around the room and recite them to those you meet? Oh no, that would be terribly strange and The Communication Gym is here to help you, not ambush your career!. This is why today’s Training Tip is so important. Read on.

Now that you have identified the 4 Key Attributes of your Ideal Client, you are better positioned to develop the questions you will ask to uncover the 4 Key Attributes of each suspect you meet. At The Gym we refer to those questions as Elevator Questions. You may be familiar with an Elevator Pitch, and they have some similarities, but we are not asking you to create your Elevator Pitch. What makes these two skills similar is that you prepare your questions in advance and your questions are direct so that they uncover the information you need to know. Like an Elevator Pitch, time is of the essence, and you will not be able to ask each suspect 20 questions. We encourage our members to limit themselves to three Elevator Questions.

Essentially you are looking for reasons NOT to enter the sales process.

And now for today’s practice. First brainstorm a list of at least 20 questions you could ask to qualify your suspect. From that list, identify the questions you would ask if you only had the chance to ask three.

Practice those questions out loud every day.

When you are in that room full of suspects, we want those questions to be second nature to you. When you are in the midst of mingling, we want you to sincerely listen, not have an inner dialogue that prevents you from hearing the conversation.

P.S. This room full of suspects presents another opportunity to you to practice your Heralding skills. As your Elevator Questions reveal the qualities of your suspect, you may be able to make introductions to other members of your team or connections.

At The Communication Gym, we remain focused on our mission to to improve the quality of your life by improving the quality of your conversations. Join us Thursdays at 11:30am ET for Live @ The Gym on LinkedIn. Spend 15 minutes with us and leave with a skill to practice. Every single time.