Step Up Results

Ask Great Questions.

Do you use questions effectively?

Questions are the keys to your success in sales and life.  Why?

First, they help engage the customer, and an engaged customer is more likely to buy, than one who is not engaged.  This is why so many direct mail packages contain an “involvement device.”  The research has shown the marketing firms that when the customer gets the slightest bit involved, he ends up buying the product, more often than not.

Second, good questions provide you with important information you need in order to frame your benefits, value proposition and solutions.

Third, when the questions imply that the customer has a “knowledge gap” that could have negative consequences, he seeks more information.  Thus, he becomes more proactively involved in the conversation.

If questions are so great, why don’t more people use them?  Perhaps because most of us have been taught to make presentations, to have a one-way focus which is mostly about the company, product or service.  We already know about those things;  we’ve memorized the fact book.  Presenting is easier than asking questions because the presentation materials are already made.  All we have to do is go through the drill when we’re in front of the client.  The problem is, this is a totally ineffective approach.

On the other hand, while questions require more effort, they represent a much more effective approach. Think of pealing an onion.  Each question removes another layer, and with each layer you learn relevant information about the person.  With such information, you are better able to position your product or service to show greater value.

Sometimes it’s as simple as using phrases such as  “Tell me more…..” or “What do you mean by that?” or my favorite – “Help me understand.”  Asking good questions doesn’t mean memorizing a list of questions (yet another script).  It means learning to think in questions, so they become a natural part of how you converse.

What questions or questioning strategies will you add?