35 Closed-Ended Questions To Ignite Your Sales Strategy – And When to Use Them

Here are four types of close-ended questions every sales professional should know

1. Ranking in order

Consider your potential customer: What is most important to them? This kind of specific inquiry is used to elicit specific information about the person being questioned, such as what kind of help they require.

Specifically, “Please rate the following in order of significance from one to four, where one is most essential to you in a product, and four is least important: dependability, multi-functionality, user-pleasant, speed of service.”

2. One or the other

For prospects, the dichotomous close-ended question may be the most straightforward to understand and respond to. Only yes or no, or true or false, are acceptable responses to most questions; indirect questions are the only ones that allow for more nuanced responses.

3. Checklists or multiple-choice questions

This was a class favorite and may still be the favored format for making sales presentations. What person wouldn’t be thrilled by all the available choices?

Questions with multiple-choice answers and no room for free-form writing typically consist of the following: The “stem” is the actual question being asked, “leaves” are the “proper” and “distract” queries, and “fruits” are the “alternative” solutions.

4. The 0-5 rating scale

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement? How strongly do you agree or disagree? You’ve encountered questions like these before.

Especially if qualitative indicators are being taken into account, sales representatives should employ rating scale close-ended inquiries to evaluate data about a particular service, product, or feature.

A list of 35 best closed-ended questions for salespeople

On your next sales call, try asking your potential customers one of the following closed-ended questions to get them talking about the specifics of what they need for their business:

1. Which of these is your top priority?
2. How many different suppliers do you utilize at the moment?
3. Tell us how and where you found out about us.
4. Which features of this solution are required, desirable, and even a little bit of a stretch?
5. Do you have the last say on matters of policy?
6. Who should we speak with to close this deal?
7. Are you pleased with your current sales levels?
8. Do you have all the data you need?
9. When do you anticipate making a purchase?
10. Do you plan to shop with us again?
11. Do you have a firm grasp on your most important metrics for measuring success?
12. Should we expect to be compared to other providers?
13. Did you like the most recent advertisement that your rival launched?
14. Can you direct me to resources that can help me understand your work better?
15. Is our product compatible with any of your other products or services?
16. Do you enjoy this feature that we’ve implemented in our product?
17. Do you feel like you’ve exhausted all of your options in [insert relevant area]?
18. Do you get what I’ve been saying?
19. Have we been communicating effectively enough for you?
20. How can we enhance your service?
21. Do you have any suggestions or feedback for me?
22. Do you have experience with similar projects?
23. Is it hard to create and distribute this kind of product or service?
24. To what extent can I help you grow your business?
25. Do you think this option will help you perform better?
26. What did you think of the live demo?
27. How soon (within the next two months) do you hope to make a choice?
28. Is this the sort of response you were hoping for, number
29. Would you recommend our service to a friend or coworker?
30. When would you want to set up a follow-up appointment, number?
31. Have you considered looking elsewhere for this product?
32. How worried are you about [insert problem here]?
33. Are you happy with your current provider?
34. Is this something you could afford?
35. Is this something you are ready to move forward with?
    

The ability to ask insightful questions is a key component of every successful sales plan. Jot down the kinds of questions you plan to ask at each step. To discuss more let’s connect with us now.