Many sales courses tell the delegates to start with open questions that begin with who, what, where, when, how, and why. Think of a question about your product that starts with one of the above words. Could the question be answered with one word or just a very short sentence? Many questions starting with these words can be answered very briefly. They do not encourage the buyer to talk. A low reactor-type customer will not open up when asked this style of question.

So how do you get your prospect talking and telling you about themselves, and their wants, needs, and desires. It’s easy, just do what you would in casual conversation with friends. Use a question that encourages the buyer to open up and give you more than just a short answer. This is a great sales skill to have that will help you close more sales. Start your questions with, tell me about, or, give me an idea. Ask them to, build you a picture, or, describe it for you. How about, explain to me, and, bring me up to speed. Think of a question about your product that starts with one of the above phrases. It should be difficult to answer with a short sentence or just one word?

The key is to get the prospect talking and then give them direction. You don’t want a stop-start process that interrupts the flow of the conversation. Once you have them opening up to you, use questioning techniques that guide them to where you want them to go. Move them towards describing their needs, wants, desires, and what they are currently dissatisfied with.

The next questions to use in the sales process will give the conversation direction. These are the who, what, where, how, and when questions. They elicit more detail and give direction to the now-flowing conversation. And remember, this is a conversation, not an interrogation. These sales questions should be open-ended and will give you information on the more general topics brought out by the opening questions. For example, what are you looking for, when do you do that, how important is that. All in response to, and focused on, the areas raised by the prospect.

Now you want more detail on the benefits the buyer is looking for. You want to ask open sales questions, on specific subjects, to start narrowing down the information. Think of the sales questioning process as a funnel. You have started with a wide-open, conversation-provoking question. Then narrow the possible answers slightly with the where, what, how, type questions. Now you close the funnel a little more and look for tighter specifics. You ask questions such as, what size, how many, who else uses it.

You can now get to the real specifics, and fill in the gaps in the information you have. Ask alternative questions like, red or blue, Monday or Wednesday. Offer specific suggestions and ideas and look for their responses. Use direct questions that require yes or no answers. When you think you have all the information on one particular subject you can check your understanding of their needs. Then summarise and look for approval and agreement.

You may have only covered one area of the needs that they gave you in response to your opening question. Think of this as one funnel that you have completed. If there are more needs areas go back and start another funnel. Do this until you have covered all the topics related to the benefits they want that your opening questions brought out. After each funnel check your understanding of what they want. When you have exhausted all the benefits and needs topics, summarise and check your understanding of all the needs, wants, and desires that you have discovered.

This also helps towards the closing of the sale. You are gaining agreement that this is what the customer wants. Depending upon your product and your market you can gain agreement from the buyer. You can ask, in your own words, that if you can provide the needs you have just summarised are they in a position to buy from you. In a market where it is appropriate, you can ask the, If I Can question. If I can provide all these benefits will you buy from me today? But only if it is suitable for your product and your marketplace. Gaining this level of commitment throughout the sale makes closing the sale so much easier. This is how top sales professionals make selling look so simple, and why they close so many sales.

The above sales questioning techniques make the sales process more pleasant for the buyer. Compare the smooth style of communication, and let the customer talk as you guide them, with the short sharp questioning techniques used by many inexperienced salespeople. When you ask a sales question that needs only a short answer you get the stop-start sales meeting. Pauses and silences, no real communication. The buyer will feel like they are being interrogated or completing a questionnaire. When you ask several individual questions in succession the customer will feel stressed.

This is because they are having to think before each answer. They feel like they are on a high-pressure quiz show. When you use conversation style sales skills the customer feels relaxed, as they would in an informal setting. When you talk in a flow of communication about one topic, down one funnel at a time, there is no stress. Just an exchange of information, gently brought out using an effective sales questioning process.

Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below.  We look forward to talking to you soon!

The post Sales Questioning Techniques and How to Use Them to Close a Sale appeared first on ConectUS Wireless.

Stranded Ore. Couple Rescued with CAP Cellphone Info

Maj. Margot MyersPublic Information OfficerNational Cell Phone Forensics TeamCivil Air Patrol’s National Cell Phone Forensics Team guided searchers March 25 to a missing couple stranded 29 hours in their vehicle in a remote area of northwest Oregon in temperatures that fell below freezing.The couple, ages 59 and 60, set off March 24 from their h…

Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below.  We look forward to talking to you soon!

The post Stranded Couple Rescued with Cellphone Info appeared first on ConectUS Wireless.

us economy: The coming shock that will transform the US economy – Verve times

The “China shock” was one of the most significant economic events of the last two decades in America. Most of the shock is now over – Chinese imports are competitive with much of the output of U.S. manufacturing, and China has already displaced many U.S.

Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below.  We look forward to talking to you soon!

The post Coming Shock to the U.S. Economy appeared first on ConectUS Wireless.

Still mired in the COVID crisis, plus the recent supply chain problems, we’ve come to rely more on purchasing goods and services via electronic means. Social engineering is all about manipulating people to believe that the website or email they are looking at, or the person they are talking with, is legitimate. We used to believe that only the elderly fell for social engineering. However, a recent study discovered that 80-85% of victims are in the age group of 22 to 55 years old.

Modern scammers study the organization they are going to impersonate. We know that they will often create web pages that are identical to the real ones, but did you know they will speak with the real representatives to discover the words they use, and the accents they have? So that when they call you, or you call them, they sound just like the real McCoy.

What do you mean, you would never call them? I personally know of a legitimate company that let payments for their 1800 number lapse. That number was immediately leased by scammers, and for nine months, the legitimate company’s website sent their own employees to the 1800 number. Duh!

According to the recent Truecaller Insights US Spam & Scam Report, 59.49M Americans (23%) report having lost money as a result of phone scams during the 12-month period – up from 56 million (22%) in the previous 12 months. The average monitory loss was $502, up from $351.

The phone scams can either be a voice robocall from a real number or from a spoofed number, or an SMS text from a real number or a spoofed number. Countermeasures against real numbers are pretty good. For example, Verizon uses a call filtering system to warn customers if a known spammer number is calling.

However, most robocalls no longer come from real numbers: mostly they come from spoofed IDs, and often from a spoofed number from your local exchange – that is, with your area code. So please, NEVER call back and start screaming at your neighbor, unless you’d like a police visit for verbally abusing an innocent person. Likewise, it used to be a good idea to get your numbers registered on the www.donotcall.gov website. This is now ineffective.

The good news is that the major carriers are trying to implement the FCC-mandated STIR/SHAKEN technology to identify the origin of each call. Yes, STIR/SHAKEN is a backronym, based on James Bond of MI6 fame, but it still sounds cool. The STIR part is a backronym describing a method for verifying the originator of a call as it enters a VoIP system. The SHAKEN backronym describes a system for dealing with VoIP-initiated calls entering the cell phone or POTS (traditional landline) networks without verifiable STIR information attached.

These protocols have every likelihood of eliminating spoofed calls originating in North America within a few years. The difficulty is going to be in getting other countries onboard. VoIP calls can be generated anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Thus, calls can be initiated with missing or false STIR information.

So, what can we do to decrease our chances of being defrauded?

1. Assume that every text is fraudulent unless you know who it is coming from or are expecting it.
2. Don’t answer calls from unknown numbers. Always send the call to voicemail, then either listen to the voicemail recording, or search for the number in your emails to see if it appears in a known person’s signature line. If confirmed, then call the person back – and add their number to your contacts list.
3. Even when the person seems legitimate, if it feels wrong, ask the person for a call-back number then research that number online before calling back.
4. If someone from your healthcare provider calls you and needs to verify you are who you say you are before they talk about HIPAA information, ask that person to verify first – after all, they called your number.

Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below.  We look forward to talking to you soon!

The post It’s Holiday Time: Watch Out for Scammers appeared first on ConectUS Wireless.

Darrell Waltrip Doesn’t Hold Back and Warns NASCAR About Making Too Many Changes and Losing Fans

Darrell Waltrip is undeniably one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history. After retiring from racing in 2000, the Hall of Famer became a prominent part of NASCAR’s coverage on Fox.

Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below.  We look forward to talking to you soon!

The post Darrell Waltrip Warns NASCAR Not To Make Too Many Changes appeared first on ConectUS Wireless.

HDMI 2.0 can be labelled as HDMI 2.1 with no enhancements

HDMI cables are a staple for almost all households these days. They’ve been commonplace as a convenient and quality way to transfer both video and audio from a device with a single cable.

Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below.  We look forward to talking to you soon!

The post HDMI 2.0 Cables Can Be Labelled as HDMI 2.1 appeared first on ConectUS Wireless.

Amazon explains the cause behind Tuesday’s massive AWS outage

Amazon has published a post-event summary to shed some light on the root cause behind this week’s massive AWS outage that took down a long list of high-profile sites and online services, including Ring, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Roku.

Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below.  We look forward to talking to you soon!

The post Amazon explains the cause behind Tuesday’s massive AWS outage appeared first on ConectUS Wireless.

The U.S. has a history of going it alone on standards. Usually because the rest of the world always seems to be dragging its heels on agreeing on common standards – procrastinating or just plain arguing. The one that I became aware of from a young age was the difference between analog TV standards.

The BBC introduced colour broadcasts in 1967. However, my family could not afford to rent a color set until the mid ‘70s. I loved several U.S shows – usually reruns – such as Mission Impossible, Star Trek, and The Time Tunnel. However, the color always looked wrong to me – larger than life, over the top.

In the U.S., the NTSC standard had come to the mass market in the early ‘60s, although there had been some limited color broadcasts from 1954 onwards. The NTSC standard was adopted in the U.S., Canada, Japan and South Korea. Its television image had 486 visible lines, refreshed 30 times per second, in what was called a raster scan. The great thing about the NTSC standard was that color broadcasts could still be read by older monochrome (black and white) televisions.

You can find technical detail online of how NTSC worked. Briefly, a luminance signal carried information about light and dark. This would be ready by both monochrome and color sets. While an overlaid chrominance signal would be read by color sets and ignored by monochrome sets.

Most of the rest of the world (excluding France) adopted the PAL standard – Phase Alternating Line – but several years later. PAL had 576 lines – a higher definition than NTSC, but a slower frame rate, meaning a slightly less smooth viewing experience.

For broadcast in PAL countries, NTSC programing had to be converted. Extra lines needed to be inserted – easy – frames needed to be dropped – also easy. But for some reason the conversion of the luminance and chrominance signals to the PAL color model (named “YUV”) proved elusive. Hence, the American shows I watched always seemed to have too much color.

All of that is in the past. HDTV standards are worldwide. Modern TVs can deal with different aspect ratios, electricity grid Hertz rates, and differing frame rates.

Now to smartphones. Second and third generation (2G and 3G) phones were digital. For various reasons we ended up with two standards. The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) was a standard developed by ETSI and later by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project; while CDMA (or CDMA2000) was first developed by the TIA. CDMA provided a larger capacity than GSM using limited bandwidth, but did not allow concurrent data transmissions during a voice call. CDMA also reportedly “dropped” fewer calls than GSM on a like-for-like basis.

When first introduced, fourth generation or 4G smartphones tended to be pitched as such as a marketing message. The manufacturers of phones were not so happy that they must produce multiple versions of the “same” phone. Hence, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project worked with multiple international standards organizations and manufacturers to create what is commonly called LTE, Long Term Evolution (although the term “LTE” is trademarked by ETSI).

Today, we now have common 4G LTE and 5G standards worldwide. It means that at last we can take our smartphone on vacation with us, rather than rent a phone and SIM card locally, as I have done in the past.

Mobility has come a long way in just a few short years. I’m writing this blog only a short while after new mid-band and high-band frequencies have become available in the U.S. Higher bands may not transmit as far as lower bands. However, they support previously undreamt-of data transmission rates.

I recently connected to the high band Verizon 5G network and measured transfer rates in excess of 1 Gigabit per second. This is more than enough bandwidth to support enterprise businesses, let alone SMBs. In my title above, I used the term smartphone. But the truth is, with common standards, all kinds of devices and processes can be supported by cell technology. Wow! Welcome to the future.

Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below.  We look forward to talking to you soon!

The post Smartphones Adopt Common Standards appeared first on ConectUS Wireless.

Many sales courses tell the delegates to start with open questions that begin with who, what, where, when, how, and why. Think of a question about your product that starts with one of the above words. Could the question be answered with one word or just a very short sentence? Many questions starting with these words can be answered very briefly. They do not encourage the buyer to talk. A low reactor-type customer will not open up when asked this style of question.

So how do you get your prospect talking and telling you about themselves, and their wants, needs, and desires. It’s easy, just do what you would in casual conversation with friends. Use a question that encourages the buyer to open up and give you more than just a short answer. This is a great sales skill to have that will help you close more sales. Start your questions with, tell me about, or, give me an idea. Ask them to, build you a picture, or, describe it for you. How about, explain to me, and, bring me up to speed. Think of a question about your product that starts with one of the above phrases. It should be difficult to answer with a short sentence or just one word?

The key is to get the prospect talking and then give them direction. You don’t want a stop-start process that interrupts the flow of the conversation. Once you have them opening up to you, use questioning techniques that guide them to where you want them to go. Move them towards describing their needs, wants, desires, and what they are currently dissatisfied with.

The next questions to use in the sales process will give the conversation direction. These are the who, what, where, how, and when questions. They elicit more detail and give direction to the now-flowing conversation. And remember, this is a conversation, not an interrogation. These sales questions should be open-ended and will give you information on the more general topics brought out by the opening questions. For example, what are you looking for, when do you do that, how important is that. All in response to, and focused on, the areas raised by the prospect.

Now you want more detail on the benefits the buyer is looking for. You want to ask open sales questions, on specific subjects, to start narrowing down the information. Think of the sales questioning process as a funnel. You have started with a wide-open, conversation-provoking question. Then narrow the possible answers slightly with the where, what, how, type questions. Now you close the funnel a little more and look for tighter specifics. You ask questions such as, what size, how many, who else uses it.

You can now get to the real specifics, and fill in the gaps in the information you have. Ask alternative questions like, red or blue, Monday or Wednesday. Offer specific suggestions and ideas and look for their responses. Use direct questions that require yes or no answers. When you think you have all the information on one particular subject you can check your understanding of their needs. Then summarise and look for approval and agreement.

You may have only covered one area of the needs that they gave you in response to your opening question. Think of this as one funnel that you have completed. If there are more needs areas go back and start another funnel. Do this until you have covered all the topics related to the benefits they want that your opening questions brought out. After each funnel check your understanding of what they want. When you have exhausted all the benefits and needs topics, summarise and check your understanding of all the needs, wants, and desires that you have discovered.

This also helps towards the closing of the sale. You are gaining agreement that this is what the customer wants. Depending upon your product and your market you can gain agreement from the buyer. You can ask, in your own words, that if you can provide the needs you have just summarised are they in a position to buy from you. In a market where it is appropriate, you can ask the, If I Can question. If I can provide all these benefits will you buy from me today? But only if it is suitable for your product and your marketplace. Gaining this level of commitment throughout the sale makes closing the sale so much easier. This is how top sales professionals make selling look so simple, and why they close so many sales.

The above sales questioning techniques make the sales process more pleasant for the buyer. Compare the smooth style of communication, and letting the customer talk as you guide them, with the short sharp questioning techniques used by many inexperienced salespeople. When you ask a sales question that needs only a short answer you get the stop-start sales meeting. Pauses and silences, no real communication. The buyer will feel like they are being interrogated or completing a questionnaire. When you ask several individual questions in succession the customer will feel stressed. This is because they are having to think before each answer. They feel like they are on a high-pressure quiz show. When you use conversation style sales skills the customer feels relaxed, as they would in an informal setting. When you talk in a flow of communication about one topic, down one funnel at a time, there is no stress. Just an exchange of information, gently brought out using an effective sales questioning process.

Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below.  We look forward to talking to you soon!

The post Sales Questioning Techniques and How to Use Them to Close a Sale appeared first on ConectUS Wireless.