Over on the Hinge Marketing Blog, guest Author Ian Altman shares 3 Keys to Helping Non-Sales Staff Find Qualified New Business. Ian’s post provides some great advice on what non-sales people should do (and not do) to help identify and qualify new opportunities.

Since I tend to be an implementation guy, I naturally think of the skills and tools it will take to put advice like this into practice – both for myself and for my customers. In this case, I believe the most important skill we can learn to help identify new opportunities is interviewing.

An interview is a conversation between two or more people (the interviewer and the interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee. I think when we shift our mental approach from “selling” to “having a conversation” both we and our customers can relax and be more productive.

I take away a couple of points from the definition above. First, the interviewer is asking questions. He is soliciting information – not giving it out. I don’t mean that in a selfish way, I just find it can be difficult to resist the urge to immediately solve the problem. After all, if you work for a professional service firm, solving problems is probably your standard mode of operation. It can be difficult (I know it was for me) to remember to switch your roles and become the person asking questions.

A vital part to obtaining information via a conversation is asking follow up questions. This is why we can’t send non-sales folks to the customer with a standard checklist of questions and expect them to have success. If you want to get to the real need or impact, you will have to drill down. Try to build the habit of asking 3 follow up questions before you feel like you understand the real answer.

Ian points out that the most common mistake is offering a solution that looks strikingly similar to something your customer has already tried without success. In order to avoid this situation, you need to ask follow up questions such as:

• “How long has this been a problem?”
• “What have you tried to fix it?”
• “Have you given up trying to fix it?”

Questions similar to these will help you determine if it makes sense to continue the conversation to explore if you can help them solve the problem.

As the new year begins, consider adding the skill of interviewing to your toolbox. I think you will find it is one of those multi-tools that will help you in a variety of situations, not just selling.