By asking Solution Awareness Questions, you get your prospects to become more engaged in the buying conversation and lead them to emotionally attach themselves to solving their problem. And more importantly, to solve their problem by working with you.
These questions get them to personally own their problems, as well as to start to see what their future will look like once all of these newfound problems, which your questions have helped them to see for the first time, are finally solved.
So, to begin, there are two parts to Solution Awareness Questions. The first part focuses on what your prospects have done in the past in order to try and solve their problems. This is important, because it either gets them to see that, perhaps, they haven’t done all that much.
Or, it gets them to realize how long they’ve actually had their issues. And on top of this, these questions help your prospects clarify for themselves what they’re looking for in an ideal solution, which, in turn lets you know how to position your solution in the most effective way possible.
On the other hand, if you don’t ask Solution Awareness Questions and your prospects aren’t able to see what their future could look like with your solution, then they won’t feel any urgency to buy from you now. And this leads to uncertainty in their mind, which, in turn triggers some of the all-too-familiar objections, such as, “Let me think it over,” “I want to do more research,” or “I need to talk to my spouse.”
Then, as a result, you’ll get stuck in “chase mode,” where you’re desperately trying to convince them to buy. But the problem with this, though, is that we’re the least persuasive when we try to manipulate people into doing something we want them to do.
For instance, do you think you’ll be very effective if you tell your prospects what to believe and force your conclusions onto them? Or, do you think you’ll have more success by getting prospects to persuade themselves, pull you in, and overcome their own objections?
If you agree that forcing your conclusions onto prospects isn’t very effective, then by asking Solution Awareness Questions properly, you’ll avoid this headache, and the buying conversation will go much smoother.
So, with that said, here’s an everyday example of how a sequence of Solution Awareness Questions might begin:
“Now, before we started talking here today, were you out there looking for [insert what they said they want], so that you can [insert the result that they told you they’re looking for]?”
If the prospect says “No,” you can respond with:
“Oh. So, what kept you from doing so in the past?”
On the other hand, if the prospect says “Yes,” here’s a group of questions you can respond with:
“Oh. So what did you do?”
“And how did that work out for you?”
Now, if the prospect got bad results, you can respond with:
“Oh. Do you know if other people were able to get good results though?”
“So, what do you think held you back from getting the kind of results you wanted at that time?”
Or, if the prospect never got started with anything else, you can respond with:
“Oh. What kept you from getting started with that?”
Alright. After you’ve asked this first series of questions, you’ll want to transition to the second part of the Solution Awareness Questions by asking a few questions in order to learn about their buying criteria.
Here’s a sequence of questions that you can use:
“Okay. Well, let’s do this, just to make sure that what we do could actually help you. So besides [benefit #1 that they already told you they wanted] and [benefit #2], what would you actually be looking for in [your type of product or service]? For instance, if we were to sit down and design it together, what do you feel you really need, so that you can [insert what they already told you they wanted]?
“Can I ask why that’s important to you . . . now though?”
“And is there anything else you want?”
Okay. The second part of the Solution Awareness Questions focuses on helping your prospects to see, understand, and feel what their future will be like once their problems are finally solved. Now, if you recall the Situation Questions we went over earlier, these help your prospects understand their present situation, or their current state.
But on the flip side, since Solution Awareness Questions help your prospects to see what their future will look like once their problems are solved, this is also known as their objective state. In other words, it’s how their life will look once the urgent problems which you just helped them to see clearly in their mind are solved with your solution.
So, here’s an example of how a sequence of Solution Awareness Questions might begin:
“Okay, let’s say we came in and we’re able to help you [insert what they said they wanted]. What would you be able to do . . . that you feel you can’t do now, or can’t do at your best right now?”
“Now, you being able to [insert what they said they wanted to be able to do], how would your life be different from the way it is now?”
“What would that do for you . . . personally?”
“How would that make you . . . feel though?”