I walked into a local Men's clothing store the other day. The manager greeted me with the expected, "How can I help you?" I swiveled my hips, through up my right arm like the Heisman Trophy stance and replied, "That's okay, I'm just looking around." 
After browsing for a few moments, another prospective customer walked in. The manager was otherwise occupied, so one of the impeccably dressed sales people stepped up, but this time with a thought-provoking query:
"What brought you into the store today?"
PERFECT!
This customer realized he couldn't respond with a "Just looking" - it would be close to a non sequitur. Instead, he replied, "I need some clothes for a weekend party." Buyer and seller then proceeded to look consider some shirts, pants, sport jackets, etc together.
I, on the other hand, went aobut my business solo.
See, the difference in the two sellers' questions is that the one reminds us of all the lousy buyer-seller relationships we've had in the past. I threw up the Heisman pose because I wanted to be in control, not "sold to". The latter CustomerCentric seller, saw his role as facilitating the customers buying experience and sought to put the customer at ease from the outset. That customer was engaged by the seller and may have felt comfortable that this buying experience might be different than previous ones.
The clothing salesman's opening has a parellel in Business to Business sales. Asking for more information off a web site, or contacting a provider proactively is like walking into a men's clothing store.
For the seller, it is all about processing inbound interest.
"What brought you into the store today?"
Isn't that the same as asking "What are you trying to accomplish?" or "What are your objectives in contacting us today/this week/recently?"
Don't these sort of questions, engage the customer to discuss things about their life (retail), business priorities, that the seller would never discover, or discover too late ifd they just asked "Can I help you?"
Too often sellers treat potential buyers who come to us through an inbound medium as fresh meat too eager to get into the wallets of buyers. Instead, consider the following when processing inbound interest.
1) Confirm goals, issues challenges by asking, "What are you hoping to accomplish?" or "What are your objectives in researching a ____ (insert business description) provider?"
2) Adjudge where they are in their buying process;
3) Ask about capabilities needed or that they’ve seen in the marketplace to see if they are looking elsewhere;
4) Ask who else besides the caller/emailer would be involved in an evaluation;
Start off your buyer-seller relationship with these conversational tools and you'll likely avoid the Heisman stiff-arm!
