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Open, Leading and Closed Questions
Written by: Nikki OwenArticle Overview: In a selling environment where most good sales people appreciate the importance of discovering a prospect’s requirements, it is easy to take questioning skills for granted. Yet, questions that are crafted with strategic intent can uncover a myriad of secrets stored in the prospect’s mind.
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Open, Leading and Closed Questions
A typical trap that even the most experienced sales person can fall into, is that they make assumptions, either based on hard facts, possible facts or generalisations they’ve formed about their industry, prospects and themselves. Good questions seek to challenge and test assumptions so that the sales person’s mind and the mind of their prospect/customer is free to think clearly and consequently to provide the relevant information. Before you can start to ask questions designed to uncover specifics, it’s important to give the prospect the opportunity to talk. The more they talk, the more signposts you’ll receive that will help lead the way to your desired outcome. Therefore, it helps to understand the definition and the positioning of different question types:
Open Questions
For example: "How can we help?"
● good for opening up the customer and getting broad, general, information that is uninfluenced by you
● gives the customer the freedom to tell you whatever they want
● tend to start with what, when, where, why, who, which or how
Leading Questions
For example: "What else can you tell me about your delivery requirements?"
● good for leading the customer in the direction you want them to go and finding out more specific information about their requirements
● tend to start with what, when, where, why, who, which or how
Closed Questions
For example: "Do you want to order this?"
● usually get a “yes” or “no” (or very short) answer
● useful when you want to pinpoint/clarify specific information
The type of questions you ask customers can generate an uninfluenced or an influenced response. Open questions tend to give you longer, uninfluenced answers that allow you to begin to appreciate what’s important to a customer. Leading questions are still open questions yet they influence customers’ responses around specific areas.
The Open, Leading and Closed Combination
Open questions »»» uninfluenced customer response »»» leading questions »»» influences customer response »»» closed question »»» validation of customer response
The example below illustrates the ideal combination of using open, leading and closed questions to pinpoint a customer’s specific requirements:
Sales person: “What’s important to you?” (Open question)
Customer: “Price, quality and efficiency.” (Uninfluenced response)
Sales person: “Why is price important to you?” (Leading question based on price)
Customer: “So I can be more competitive in winning new business.” (Influenced response based on price related question)
Sales person: “If I can demonstrate how we can help you win more business, will you review our proposition?” (Closed question to gain agreement)
Customer: “Yes” (influenced, definite response)
Article Tags: assumptions, closed questions, customer response, delivery requirements, desired outcome, experienced sales, freedom, industry prospects, question types, sales person, short answer, signposts, specifics
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About the Author: Nikki Owen RSS for Nikki's articles - Visit Nikki's website Nikki Owen has dedicated the last 16 years to the development of sales professionals and sales leaders for many large international organizations. She has coached and mentored over 6,000 sales people and their leaders. In 2004 Nikki conducted the largest sales research projects ever undertaken, involving 2663 organizations to identify the 5 biggest barriers to sales success. This extensive report has been referred to in global publications as the ultimate solution to creating high-performing sales teams. Nikki is the creator of The Sales Activator® an award winning sales toolkit. As a certified Master Practitioner and Trainer of NLP, Nikki is an expert with applying seeming complex techniques within a corporate sales infrastructure. Nikki lectures on sales leadership using her own case studies from her client portfolio including Shell, Barclays Bank and Zurich Life. In 2007 she became an accredited firewalking instructor with the Firewalking Institute of Research and Education and studies Quantum Physics. Nikki is the author of 'A Second Chance to Live' that was first published in 1991 by Transworld and was translated and sold in 16 different countries. She has been interviewed on numerous television and radio shows and is finalising her next book titled – An Audience with Charisma based on her cutting-edge seminars that she hosts at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London. Click here to visit Nikki's website Understanding Social Styles Persuasive Sales Presentations The Karma of Connections Time Management Pipeline Management |
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