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Becoming a Great Conversationalist: The Art of Asking Questions

Have you ever wondered why some people have the "gift of gab" and others don't? Well so have I. The following transcript won't give you the gift of gab but it will make you a perceived great conversationalist. Whether you need your conversational skills for work or for home, to sell or be sold, it all comes down to the questions you ask and how you ask them.

Master the art of questioning: Questions are one of the most powerful weapons in a salesperson's arsenal of procedures and techniques. Questions require a prospect to participate actively in the sale. Questions help us learn the prospects hidden wants and needs. Questions give us time to gain lost composure.

We must become excellent question askers and effective listeners.

When sales people, particularly junior sales people are faced with client's problems they are so intent of doing a great job and solving problems that they do themselves and their clients a disservice by jumping in with an answer or solution before properly uncovering the real problem.

Tip*Learn the SPIN Selling model (Neil Rackham) and use it to engage your clients.

Learn to ask questions that not everyone else is asking. If they have pictures of their family on their desk, don't ask about that because every other sales person that has sat in that chair has asked the same questions. Ask them questions that make them think.

Sample Questions:

• Does your company look today like you thought it would when you established it?
• Why did you get into business for yourself?
• Why did you choose this industry?
• What do you like most about your role?
• What industry changes have you seen over the years?
• What are your future plans for the business?
• How has technology affected your business?
• What opportunities for your company have the last few years and the technology change created?
• Have you always been in this role or have you worked in other departments?
• What is most important when you hire people?
• What is the extent of new positions that your organization will be creating in the next year?
• How are you presently dealing with the skill shortage?
• How do you develop people internally?
• What effect does the skills shortage have on your employees?
• What strategies do you have in place to locate and retain good quality people?
• How does that affect your business?
• How does that affect your other employees?
• How does that affect you personally?
• How do you feel about that?

Great questions well timed will make you sound like a great conversationalist.

Use this technique at home as well. Engage your partner by asking insightful well timed questions. Your family will wonder what happened.

When I am at networking events or at a social gathering I use the technique of asking well planned questions. My goal is to learn as much about the person I am talking to without revealing anything about myself. Because I am asking the questions, I am controlling the conversation. When that person leaves the conversation they walk away with the feeling that they just had a great conversation meanwhile all I did was ask questions.

Try this at your next networking meeting and let me know how it goes.

I have been using this to my advantage in an online business that I have discovered.

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Referred by: http://jaykubassek.com

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