Anatomy of a sales engineering "transaction" (part 3)

Asking the right questions is key to a sales engineering transaction.  The end goal is to find the best possible "fit" between the product you are are representing and the prospect's needs.  The better the fit...the higer the value to the prospect...and the more they will be willing to pay for the product.  So the task is to gain a deep understanding the product features and benefits provides and a good understanding of the prospect's needs.  The product features and benefits are a good basis for developing the lines of questioning.  But the questions that you ask a prospect are not about the product...they are about their business.  For example...if a product has a built-in ACD.  It is probably not a good idea to ask the prospect if they need an ACD?  They might not even know what the acronym stands for...or...they might have a misconceptions about what an ACD is (high cost or poor customer service for example).  A better question would be..."do you have any departments that take incoming calls where there is more than one person qualified and responsible to take incomming calls"?  Assumming the answer is "yes"...then "how do calls get distributed to those individuals now"?  I think you get my point...if my product did not offer ACD...I would not ask these questions.  And the prospect might not ask me if I have an ACD.  If neither one of us asks the question...then the value of the built-in ACD goes unrealized. This is just an example...there are litterally hundreds of features that need to be explored in order to be able to deliver the benefits designed into a telecom product.  By this method I have personally doubled the dollar amount of the original quote...and delivered benefits that the prospect might never have realized were available.  Asking the right questions to gain detailed knowledge of how well the prospect's needs match the product capabilities is one of the most valuable and rewarding sales engineering responsibilities.