{"id":1551,"date":"2008-05-05T08:20:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-05T13:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/05\/a-quick-questioning-tip\/"},"modified":"2008-05-05T07:15:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-05T12:15:00","slug":"a-quick-questioning-tip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/05\/a-quick-questioning-tip\/","title":{"rendered":"A Quick Questioning Tip"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This tip comes from the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sellingpower.com\/article\/display.asp?aid=SP5281164\">Selling Power archives<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Never ask a question without first explaining why you&#8217;re asking.<\/p>\n<p>Nirenberg says, &#8220;Just asking a question puts the listener on the spot. However, if you let him know why you&#8217;re asking, it makes him a partner,&#8221; Nirenberg goes on to explain, &#8220;People with sales backgrounds often avoid asking questions because they think that the talker controls the conversation. That&#8217;s not true because the listener can always tune you out. In fact, you&#8217;d be surprised how often you&#8217;re talking to yourself during a sales call.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That is a good tip.\u00a0 Asking good qualifying questions is crucial for successful selling.\u00a0 However, most people have experienced a salesperson who takes this approach to an obnoxious extreme.\u00a0 I have seen them rattle off question after question like a machine gun.\u00a0 You could just see the prospect shutting down.<\/p>\n<p>The key is to soften the questions before asking them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This tip comes from the Selling Power archives: Never ask a question without first explaining why you&#8217;re asking. Nirenberg says, &#8220;Just asking a question puts the listener on the spot. However, if you let him know why you&#8217;re asking, it makes him a partner,&#8221; Nirenberg goes on to explain, &#8220;People with sales backgrounds often avoid asking questions because they think that the talker controls the conversation. That&#8217;s not true because the listener can always tune you out. In fact, you&#8217;d be surprised how often you&#8217;re talking to yourself during a sales call.&#8221; That is a good tip.\u00a0 Asking good qualifying questions is crucial for successful selling.\u00a0 However, most people have&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/05\/a-quick-questioning-tip\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,9],"tags":[184,617,211,142,616],"class_list":["post-1551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","category-sales-techniques","tag-qualifying","tag-qualifying-question","tag-sales-skill","tag-sales-technique","tag-selling-question"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-p1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1729,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/09\/stereotypical-features-and-benefits\/","url_meta":{"origin":1551,"position":0},"title":"Stereotypical Features And Benefits","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"September 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I am not fan of features and benefits selling.\u00a0 I don't even think that approach belongs in a retail sales environment.\u00a0 The better approach is to qualify the prospect for need - What are they looking for?\u00a0 What is it they need to have\/do?\u00a0 What is their time frame?\u00a0 You\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Techniques&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Techniques","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-techniques\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2105,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/09\/q-is-for-qualifying-questions\/","url_meta":{"origin":1551,"position":1},"title":"Q Is For Qualifying Questions","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"September 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I come across this often \u2013 a company wants to hire a superstar salesperson and the hiring manager\u2019s first instinct is to find a loquacious talker.\u00a0 Perhaps you have seen this approach too?\u00a0 Clearly no readers of the Hire Sense would administer this approach in their hiring. Right? Ok, maybe\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring Salespeople&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1379,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/01\/selling-is-not-telling\/","url_meta":{"origin":1551,"position":2},"title":"Selling Is Not Telling","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Conventional Wisdom = The best talkers make the best salespeople. If I could rewrite that to make it accurate, I would state it like this:\u00a0 The best questioners make the best salespeople. Yes, I know that is oversimplifying things, but it is an attempt at rewriting conventional wisdom.\u00a0 The key\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Techniques&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Techniques","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-techniques\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1472,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/03\/candidates-that-do-not-wow\/","url_meta":{"origin":1551,"position":3},"title":"Candidates That Do Not Wow","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"March 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"We've been on this topic a bit lately, but it is mission-critical to successful selling.\u00a0 Asking questions...asking the right questions is tantamount to qualifying prospects.\u00a0 Most sales managers know this, yet we often see them displaying selective amnesia when it comes to interviewing sales candidates. Case in point:\u00a0 Lee often\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring Salespeople&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2608,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2015\/07\/2-habits-that-undermine-salespeople\/","url_meta":{"origin":1551,"position":4},"title":"2 Habits That Undermine Salespeople","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"July 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Supposition \u2013 something that is supposed; assumption; hypothesis Think of supposition, in sales parlance, as being synonymous with stereotyping.\u00a0 This is a dangerous approach to sale in that once you start making assumptions, you start derailing your qualifying skills.\u00a0 In most prospect situations, once you stop truly qualifying you are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2577,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2015\/05\/silence-kills-deals\/","url_meta":{"origin":1551,"position":5},"title":"Silence Kills Deals?","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"May 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"My mouth is still agape after reading this article in the MSP Business Journal \u2013 How to close a sales more effectively. The first howler: Anyone involved in sales knows silence can kill deals. If you present your best recommendations to a prospect and stop talking, he might say, \u201cThat\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Communication&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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