»» Sales Powerful Follow-up Questions In previous columns I have discussed NIQCL (Need, Importance, Quantify, Consequence and Look/Listen) as a tool for in-depth probing to understand the situation from your customer’s point of view. It appears that many of you have taken this advice to heart. I have witnessed many distribution reps using this tool, which is great. Un-fortunately, with so much focus on the process, we are missing the opportunity for some very powerful follow-up questions that demon-strate our genuine concern and will provide us with more information about our customer. So let’s explore some follow-up questions that are effective in uncovering additional information, as well as their most effective timing. What else? Many of our probing questions start with asking about a NEED, which is either a customer’s problem that needs to be solved or an opportunity that needs to be captured. When the customer has answered that initial question and you have acknowledged their response, the next appropriate follow-up question is: “What else?” By Patrick T. Malone Patrick T Malone is a Leadership Expert and Senior Partner at The PAR Group, an international training and development firm based in Atlanta, Ga. He is the co-author of the business book Cracking the Code to Leadership and may be reached at patrick.malone@thepargroup.com 12 DECEMBER 2016 »» VETERINARY ADVANTAGE • WWW.VET-ADVANTAGE.COM