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Asking versus Telling
Main Benefits |
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Establishing
rapport:
don't try to impress people with your ideas, rather
establish rapport and
trust by eliciting ideas from them and thus expressing how much
you care about them
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Better
listening,
deeper understanding: all too often, while you are
talking, your prospect is not listening but thinking about what
he/she is going to say. When you ask questions, you make your
prospect think in the direction you propose.
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Higher
motivation,
better follow-up: the right answer will not be imposed by
you, it will be found and owned by your prospect, who, thus, will be
more motivated to follow it up
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Getting Response You
Need
Types
of Questions |
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Open: Question
does not invite any particular answer, but open up discussion or
elicit a wide range of answers for
creative
problem solving.
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Closed: Question is specific and
must be answered with a yes or no, or with details as appropriate.
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Fact-Finding: Question is aimed at
getting information on a particular subject.
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Follow-Up: Question is intended to
get more information or to elicit an opinion.
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Feedback: Question is aimed at
finding the difference that makes the difference.
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Searching for New
Opportunities
"Why?" and "What If?" Questions |
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The 10
Essentials of Effective Communication |
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The Art of Effective
Questioning
How you ask questions is very important in
establishing a basis for
effective communication.
Effective questions open the door to knowledge and understanding. The art of
questioning lies in knowing which questions to ask when. "Address your first
question to yourself: if you could press a magic button and get every piece
of information you want, what would you want to know? The answer will
immediately help you compose the right questions."2
Choosing Questions
Ask a specific question if
you want to hear a specific answer. Open – as opposed to leading – questions
are those that cannot be answered with a straight "yes" or "no". Use open
questions to gain insight into the other person's character, and to invite
the response.
Learning Questions
To profit from experience you must be open and
willing to
learn, even from
what some people might consider a
failure.
What may seem to be a failure can actually
lead to new opportunities. Effective
learning questions can serve as a starting point for the assimilation of
learning.
Searching Questions
Searching questions can help you
discover new opportunities,
uncover the roots of a problem, and
find creative solutions
to it.
Asking searching questions starts with challenging assumptions. If you do
not check assumptions you cannot be good at asking searching questions.
Don't ask one or two questions and then rush straight towards a solution.
With an incomplete understanding of the problem it is very easy to jump to
wrong conclusions.
Ask open-ended questions that elicit a wide rage of answers:
More
Coaching Questions
Being the core component of the
coaching
ask / tell repertoire, coaching questions
are "to prompt the learners into exploring issues in depth either by direct
questions or by implied questions – even a raised eyebrow – so that they
become more aware of what is going on and can eventually
coach themselves
and other.
Feedback can then be used to discuss
progress and provide guidance, but still by using questions and the main
vehicle for progress whenever possible."4 ..
.More
Question Based Selling
(QBS)
In sales,
asking the right question is just as important as knowing what to say.
Salespeople must know how to ask the right questions at the right time to
clients and customers in order to identify new opportunities, qualify
accounts and uncover needs. This is the principle behind Question
Based Selling (QBS).7
Selling
Is Problem Solving
Business Communication: The
First Contact
To build relationships and
network with people effectively, the only thing you need to do is to
ask them all about their business and what they do.
What questions should you be asking to
create the right situation for perfecting it?
Case in Point
Dell
Computer Corporation
"It is really dangerous if everyone in a
company starts thinking the same way", says
Michael Dell2,
Founder of the Dell Computer Corporation. "The danger comes when you fall
into the trap of approaching problems too similarly. You can encourage your
people to think about your business, your industry, your customers
innovatively.
Ask a different question – or word the same question in a different way. By
approaching a problem, a response or an opportunity
from
a different perspective, you create an opportunity for new understanding
and new learning. By
questioning all the aspects of our business, we continuously inject
improvement and
innovation into our
culture."...
More
Case in Point
25
Lessons from Jack Welch
To
Jack Welch,
the legendary former CEO of General Electric,
business leadership
is all about knowing what questions to ask of his subordinates. That's all
managing is, says he: just coming up with the right questions and getting
the right answers.
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