Transactional Fluency

In Sales, every question is a transaction. Unfortunately, more than 80% of Salespeople don't speak the language of Sales fluently. In fact, they speak it so poorly that their Prospects usually buy from the Competition. Fear, laziness, lack of education - all of the typical Sales baggage is clearly visible in the following conversation.

Here's the Customer's question: Does it come in blue?

Is the correct answer:
A) No, but the brown ones are better, anyway.
B) I'm not sure. Let me go check.
C) We don't have any blue ones in stock, but I can get you one.
D) Is it important to you that it's blue?
E) That's an interesting question. Why blue?

What percentage of your Sales team routinely chooses each of these answers? What is their close rate? Why do you keep them?

Part of being a Sales Manager is asking the hard questions. The same baggage mentioned above comes with how you address the answers. Your success - or the lack of it - rides on your team's fluency, and their consistency. Don't assume that they're doing it right - go find out, regularly, so that it becomes expected behavior.