Ask “What did you like?”

Have you been frustrated not knowing quite where you stand with a prospect after an initial conversation? Ask a question like this to find out:

“I’m curious, what stood out from our conversation today?”

This gives you a solid chance to find out their true level of interest.

Sometimes we can be so invested in assuming good things that we aren’t hearing the truth about the level of interest from the prospect. Asking them this simple question can remove some of the ambiguity that we’re often left with after a meeting or call.

Here are a few different ways you can phrase this question:

“I’m curious what, if anything, stood out from our conversation so far?”

“Based on our conversation so far, I’m curious what, if anything, stood out for you?”

“Based on what you’ve heard so far, what did you like about what you’ve heard?”

“To recap, I’m curious if you could share anything that you liked about what you heard so far…and also anything that you didn’t hear that you were hoping to from us.”
(Remember to manage your time so that you have spare minutes at the end for this question.)

This question can seem scary to your ego-mind; it’s terrifying to hear, “Uh, not much.” But even if that’s what the prospect says, at least you know where you stand. Plus, you’ll get one last chance to turn things around.

We don’t often ask this type of question because we don’t want to hear the answer. It can also feel a little self-serving. But do it anyway. It is quite helpful to force the prospect to give you some feedback—to summarize what is compelling to them and anything that they’re looking for that hasn’t been addressed yet. This is all part of consultative selling.

This type of question is particularly helpful if there are multiple people on the prospect side of the conversation. Sometimes there are internal politics that keep people from speaking up, but if you ask the question directly of each person, you’re bound to get a more direct answer.

Lastly, this is a useful question because it helps the prospect sell themselves vs. you having to do all the convincing. Let them meet you halfway in the sales process and show some motivation to change.

Look for an opportunity at the end of an upcoming prospect meeting to ask a version of the question, “What did you like?”—see how it changes the dynamic of your conversation and informs next steps. What do you have to lose?

Onward.

Tom