Skillful Inquiry

Inquiry is a sales skill that’s worth developing. It can improve every interaction with prospects and clients, but it can improve your life outside of work.

At around 14, I started wanting to ask girls out on dates.

I was good at talking to girls about homework and school stuff.

But that never seemed to lead to asking for their number or for a date.

I couldn’t figure out how the whole “asking for a date” thing worked.

Halfway through 8th grade, Alison Olmstead transferred into my U.S. History class. It was love at first sight – for me anyway.

I didn’t want to blow it again, so I asked my big brother Greg for advice.

He told me to skip the school stuff and ask Alison questions about herself; that’s how I could show her that I was interested in learning what she liked and cared about.

If only it were that simple.

The next day I got to History class early, sat next to Alison, and started asking lots of questions.

The one that sticks in my mind was, “do you like to hike?”

As questions go it’s oddly specific. They were probably all like that.

A few questions later, she made a face at her friends, and they all laughed - not in a good way.

Shot down again! What went wrong? Was my big brother feeding me a line of BS?

After few months in sales I figured out what happened - Alison felt like she was being interrogated.

Closed questions can only be answered with a yes or a no - like, “do you like to hike?”

Closed questions tell you very little about the other person’s likes, goals, interests, needs or concerns.

When we’re asked a series of closed questions it feels like we’re being interrogated.

That’s exactly what happened with Alison.

Then I started asking open questions - like “what do you like to do for fun?” – and my personal life transformed.

Open questions are especially useful for getting to know someone.

Mastering the art of inquiry means more than learning how to ask great questions; it means following those up with even more great questions. This is a seller’s primary job.

If we only ask closed questions, we can be certain that we’re not asking great questions.

So, how to formulate an open question? There are two basic approaches:

1. Ask questions that begin with Who, What, Where, When, or How. These sound like: What do you appreciate about your current vendor? or Who else in your company will benefit from this? You’ll engage their creative side and get a deeper answer.

(You may have noticed that “Why” isn’t included here. I suggest avoiding “Why” questions until you’re using the five other types expertly. I do use “Why” questions, just very selectively, and only when I’m positive their answer will add value to the conversation.)

2. An open question can also be formed as a ‘hypothetical’. Those sound like: What implications are there in switching vendors before the end of the year? These tend to go even deeper, so save hypotheticals for later in the conversation.

3. Another key to using open questions is to listen to their answers carefully. Give them ample time and space to respond and you’ll find they open up and share their goals, interests, needs, and concerns with you. Do this consistently and you’ll begin to be able to hear, see, and feel them as they shift from focusing on the problems to imagining the solutions. Listening carefully is one way that service providers can add value to our prospects and clients.

4. Be aware - it’s possible to ask questions that sound open but are actually closed, like “When is your Birthday?” or “What time is it?”

The bottom line is - both open and closed questions have a place in the selling conversation. Great sellers learn how to mix and combine open and closed questions effectively. We cover this in detail in Module 3 when we study the selling process. But essentially, open questions engage the creative problem-solving parts of our brains, so answering open questions takes more time and consideration. Answers to open questions go deeper.

Answering closed questions doesn’t require more than a word or two. Shallower questions, shallower answers.

You’re probably already really good at asking closed questions. Just be sure to avoid the interrogation pitfall I fell into with Alison Olmstead.