In today’s complex sales environment, the ability to earn the right to ask questions is more crucial than ever. By combining strategic questioning with the N.E.A.T. Selling™ framework, sales professionals can create more meaningful conversations that drive results. For this post I want to share how to master this essential skill across different experience levels while incorporating the powerful N.E.A.T. Selling™.
Understanding N.E.A.T. Selling™
Before diving into questioning strategies, let’s break down the N.E.A.T. Selling™ framework:
**N**eed: Your prospect’s critical business needs
**E**conomic Impact: The financial implications of their challenges
**A**ccess to Authority: Connecting with decision-makers
**T**imeline: Understanding their urgency and decision-making process
How to earn the right to ask these questions?
In sales, respect isn’t just given – it’s earned in what I call a “Respect Contract.” This agreement between a salesperson and prospect forms the foundation of meaningful sales conversations and ultimately determines your right to ask deeper questions. It can be done digitally or verbally. And the best practice is to do both.
What is the Respect Contract?
At its core, the Respect Contract is a mutual understanding that both parties will honor each other’s time, intelligence, and position. It begins the moment you make first contact and continues throughout the entire sales relationship. The contract is built on three key pillars:
- Preparation: Showing up ready with meaningful insights about your prospect’s business and industry.
- Transparency: Being honest about your intentions and capabilities. And when done properly it encourages the other party to be equally transparent.
- Trust Alignment: It’s our job in sales to get our prospects to “fall in trust” with us. A properly used respect contract not only allows us to earn the right to ask questions, it creates the baseline for trust building.
How to Build Your Respect Contract
Start with Research
Before making any contact, demonstrate respect by thoroughly understanding:
- Your prospect’s company and role
- Their industry challenges
- Recent company news or developments
- Competitive landscape
Set Clear Expectations
Begin conversations by:
- Confirming time for both parties and ask about any hard stops. Also explain how you will be calling a time out with about 5 minutes left simply to assess where things are headed.
- Stating mutual purpose, meaning you are each there to do some “fact finding” and that’s all.
- Ask what specific topics they want to be sure and cover.
- Confirm that if it’s not a good fit either party could walk away and “just be friends”.
- Transition – Once everything has been agreed upon, transition to discovery by simply asking “What made you want to take this call today?”.
You Just Earned the Right to Ask Questions
The Respect Contract gives you permission to ask increasingly detailed questions by:
- Asking them to explain their current situation.
- Showing you’ve listened and ask them to explain further.
- Asking questions that identify their pains in relation to your solutions.
Avoid Getting Ghosted
Remember that the Respect Contract helps you from being ghosted.
- When you explain that if they feel you are not the right solution for them or you suggest you are not the right solution it establishes mutual power.
- Simply say, “If at any point you don’t feel we are the right fit, please say so. You won’t offend me. And likewise, if I don’t think I can help you, I will gladly say so. This way you don’t have to ghost me and I don’t have to hound you with reaching out and checking in emails and phone calls. Is that fair?”
The Payoff
Nobody ever says no to a properly aligned Respect Contract. Which means they do not have more power than you. You’ve earned the right to ask all the questions you need to earn the business. Additionally the following will happen.
- Prospects share more detailed information
- Conversations flow more naturally
- Resistance to tough questions decreases
- Relationships deepen beyond the transaction
The Respect Contract isn’t just another sales technique – it’s a fundamental shift in how we approach relationships. In reality, we use Respect Contracts regularly in our every day lives with our friends, our family, and every human to human interaction. Even just holding the door for someone is a Respect Contract. By treating every interaction as an opportunity to build and maintain respect, you earn the right to ask the questions that truly matter.
Remember: in sales, respect isn’t about being nice – it’s about being professional, prepared, and focused on mutual value creation. Master the Respect Contract, and you’ll find doors opening that were previously closed.
Now, once you’ve earned the right to ask questions let’s explore some of the questions you could be asking.
The Foundation: Earning the Right at Different Levels
- Needs-Based Questions
- Focus on understanding current processes.
- Ask what their definition of “better” looks like.
- Identify pain points without being pushy.
- Examples:
- “I’m curious, what is happening over there that’s making you want to have this conversation?”
- “Can you help me understand what better looks like?”.
- Ask questions that get them to describe specific day to day pains, struggles, and their specific use cases.
- Economic Awareness Questions
- Start with high-level business impact questions and then drill down into specifics.
- Learn about their fiscal challenges.
- Learn about fiscal priorities.
- Get them to paint pictures of pain in relation to their day to day use cases.
- Examples:
- “How much time do you feel this is costing each member of your team?”
- “What things can they not get to because of these challenges?”
- “What is the impact to the organization financially because other priorities are stalled?”
- Access to Authority
- Recognize all decisions are made by committee, whether they are formal or informal.
- Accept that finding the skeptics are more important than the decision makers. You won’t get to a decision maker until you clear through the skeptics.
- Position your questions around process of decision making before the people.
- Examples:
- “When you take this back to your team to share, who is typically the most skeptical person on the team and what are they generally skeptical about?”
- “What other departments might be affected by this decision?”
- If you say yes, and someone else says no, what happens?”
- Timeline
- It’s not about reverse engineering the timeline.
- It’s about verifying what happens if they don’t meet their own timeline.
- Examples:
- “When would you want this to start?”
- “What happens if you don’t meet that date?”
Conclusion
Mastering the art of earning the right to ask questions, and then knowing which questions to ask and when, is a powerful combination regardless of your experience level in sales. These concepts will serve you throughout your entire sales career and it is not surprising they will also overflow into your real world. The key is to consistently earn the right through preparation, value creation, and genuine curiosity about your prospect’s business. Whether you’re new to sales or a seasoned professional, focusing on Needs, Economic Impact, Access to Authority, and Timeline while building trust through thoughtful questioning will lead to more successful outcomes.
Remember that it is an ongoing process to earn the right, not a one-time achievement. By consistently demonstrating value and understanding through the N.E.A.T. framework, you’ll build stronger relationships and achieve better results throughout your sales career.
Success in modern sales comes from being a trusted advisor who can navigate complex business challenges, while adding value at every interaction. Continue to refine your questioning techniques within the N.E.A.T. framework, and you’ll find yourself having more meaningful conversations that lead to mutual success.
