Question Your Questions

Why do you ask the questions you ask?

Why do you ask he questions you ask?  Most likely, it’s because you were taught to ask questions in order to receive information. Unfortunately, the majority of us are trained at an early age to ask closed questions, and never break the habit.

Closed Questions or Open Questions

Whether you have children of your own, or you borrow some, observe how most people speak to children. In many cases, a dialogue with a child can sound something like this:

“Are you having a good day? Do you like soup? Does it hurt? Do you know you could have hurt yourself? Did you do your homework? Are you ready for your test? Do you like school?”

There may be a few open questions interspersed in the mix like, “What is your favorite sport or subject in school?” However, the majority of conversations are closed.

Why do we do this to kids? I’m not a child psychologist, but if I were to guess it is because we don’t give children enough credit for their intellect. We fail to stretch children’s minds. In our attempt to love, we don’t want them to feel uncomfortable when they do not know the answer to a question, much less understand the question.

Closed Questions

As most people mature they spend their youthful lives listening to adults formulate closed questions. It is safe to say we are a product of our upbringing and environment.

Does this mean we cannot alter bad habits we’ve learned in life? Absolutely not!

Am I saying that closed questions are wrong? Not exactly.

Closed questions have their place in human communication especially when we are attempting to diagnose a problem or pinpoint a specific selection. A doctor may ask you, “Does this hurt here?” This is a great question if he already knows your shoulder hurts. However, if he never used open questions like, "Tell me about your problem?" and "Where is the majority of the pain?" he/she would look awful stupid pushing on your shoulder when the problem was your foot.

Major problems occur in relationships when one person feels less than understood by the other person. Closed questions prevent one person in a relationship from completely understanding other person’s entire thoughts.

Sales Questions

You are probably be asking, “Dennis, how in the heck does this apply to sales?” Knowing when and how to use open versus closed questions in the sales process can mean the difference between mediocrity and thriving as the top salesperson.

When not diagnosing or helping to pinpoint an unknown selection for the customer, closed questions are like pounding your customer’s thumb with a hammer. It doesn’t take to long for the customer to figure out you are a detriment to them, not an asset.

Changing the behavior of inappropriate closed questioning is difficult. Closed questioning is ingrained in us from childhood. It requires hard work and a sustained effort to make those changes.

Here are five ideas to help improve your questioning skills:

1. Record and Recognized Your Questioning Weaknesses

Even if you don’t think you have a weakness, put yourself to a test.

Get a tape recorder and record one hour of your telephone calls (you only need your end of the conversation) or place it in your shirt pocket on your next appointment. If you are going to record an appointment, don’t forget to ask the permission of the customer.  You may also want to check your state's recording policy.

I ask permission by simply saying, “Mrs. Customer, I’d like to record our meeting today so I can review the details from our discussion to ensure I cover everything you need. Is that okay with you?”  In most cases, a customer will not have a problem with you recording the meeting.

Once you have about an hour of recording time,

• sit in a quiet place and review your tape
• on a piece of paper create two columns
• create one header titled ‘close-ended’ and ‘open-ended’ for the other

• As you listen to the recording, place a check-mark in the appropriate columns for each question you asked.

Close-Ended versus Open-Ended Questions

If you are unfamiliar with what close-ended and open-ended questions are, refer to the article titled, Questioning Skills for Salespeople.

When you’ve finished listening to the tape, count the number of opened versus closed questions. Approximately seventy percent of your questions should be open with only thirty percent closed.

2. Write Down Thought Provoking Open-Ended Questions You Could Ask Clients

Think of quality questions before you engage in client discussions. Jot down a list of quality questions before making client calls or going on appointments.  This can be extremely helpful.

What is the best method of creating thought provoking questions? Again you may wish to refer to the article on questioning to determine the best method for creating opened questions.

3. Rehearse Your Questions

Once you’ve created a list of questions, meet with a colleague and ask them the questions. You want to ask your colleague to answer the question as a real customer. If you get valuable information or create a sincere dialogue, most likely you’ve got a good question. If the dialogue is limited, consider revising the question or create a series of follow-up questions.

4. Practice On-The-Fly Questioning

Military professionals practice combat situations every day preparing for the time when they may be called to active duty. Why do they practice the same skills over and over? So when the pressures of war abound they won’t have to think about how to react, they’ll just perform.

You should do the same sort of practice. Keep your list of questions in front of you at all times when practicing and revising good questions. Practice asking those questions on your sheet. However, you want to then practice asking follow-up questions specific to the answers you receive from the mock customer. Your goal is to keep your questions open unless you are diagnosing a problem or helping with an identified selection.

5. Put The Questioning Practice Into Your Sales

Practice needs to be implemented into your daily activities. The beauty of practice is that it inevitably becomes habit and habits become a product of how we react and respond. You need to be willing to ask more difficult opened questions in real-life client situations. Don’t be afraid of the outcome. Truthfully, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results you get when you ask more open questions.

Questioning is a skill. It is something that can be learned and improved upon. You are not born to be good at questioning; you are born with the faculties to receive information. In order to compile the right information for your situation you must learn to ask quality questions. Analyze your level of questioning skills and determine how you can improve and modify your skills. Your sales will show your progress.