Vision Quest

When you think about it, most of the working population is locked in the present, working feverishly to get through another day. There are so many calls to make, emails to send, proposals to write, reports to read, and customers to visit that it’s tough to think beyond the current day. But the fact remains that your prospects have hopes and dreams for their future just like you do. If you incorporate "vision questions" into your presentation – questions that get your prospect to articulate those dreams, to envision the future and think about what it would mean for him to realize his long-term goals – you’ll be infinitely closer to making the sale.

"Vision questions enable you to show the customer a bright future, to present him with a picture of what could be if he did business with you," says Paul Cherry, CEO of Performance Based Results in Wilmington, DE (www.pbresults.com) and author of Questions That Sell (AMACOM, 2006). Vision questions get people to articulate their emotions – and emotions are what motivate people to take action. For instance: "If we could eliminate this problem that’s costing you $1 million per year, what effect do you think that would have on your company?" Or, "Based on the data I’ve shown you, I know that my service could save you almost $3 million a year in shipping fees. If you were to bring that kind of savings to your boss, how would that help you attain your goal of becoming a vice president?"

Vision questions include two elements. First, they almost always include the word if. Second, they address implicit needs, which go to the heart of why prospects do what they do. There are five implicit needs:

1. Success. The need to feel a sense of accomplishment.
2. Independence. The need to feel some measure of control at work.
3. Recognition. The need to feel valued as a worker and that your opinions matter.
4. Security. The need to feel your job will not be taken away and the need to look smart in front of your boss or coworkers.
5. Stimulation. The need to feel challenged by your job.

"Once you understand which implicit need your customer has, you can use vision questions to address that need," says Cherry.

Here’s how it works. You’ve presented some background on the customer’s situation and you ask him what would happen if the company does not take action to solve the problem. Your prospect responds, "If we continue to lose money like this, I can’t imagine I would be able to keep my job for much longer. I don’t know what I would do if that happened." Clearly, the prospect needs to feel a sense of security. Armed with this information, Cherry says you now can ask the appropriate vision questions: If you and I could find a solution to this problem, what effect do you think that would have on the company in the next five years? If you came to your boss with a solution that would save the company nearly $2 million per year, what would that mean to you? If those changes in your career were to happen now, how do you think your life would look five years from now?

Vision questions aren’t complicated; they simply ask the customer to look to the future and imagine how great a change could be. "If you can use vision questions to lift your customers out of the present and into a sunny future," says Cherry, "they will be forever grateful to you, and they will almost certainly want to do business with you."