Asking questions is a much more powerful sales technique than pitching your products. While a lot has been written about what kind of questions to ask, from “ask open vs closed questions” to Neil Rackham’s SPIN Selling method, I haven’t read much about what I consider to be the most important part of asking questions – your attitude.  That’s what my 5 Rules are about.

Rule One: Have the curiosity of a five-year old.

You’ve all seen this one at work. The five year old asks “Why is the sky blue?” “How high is the sky?” “What makes ice so cold?” and on and on and on.  A five-year old doesn’t edit or try to lead the witness. To have that kind of curiosity means that you have to be observant and curious about everything you hear and see – and be willing to ask because you really want to know the answer, not because you’re trying to get your prospect to say what you want to hear.

Rule Two: Don’t assume anything.

Too often we hear an answer and assume we know what it means – only we don’t. Your prospect will say something like “We really need to increase performance,” and you will assume that you know what that means and begin to sell the performance of your product. Better to ask what the prospect means by performance – a word that can have multiple meanings – rather than assume you know which meaning is intended.

Rule Three: Get the terms defined.

Prospects often will use terms or acronyms that are specific to their industry or situation. If you don’t know what they mean, ask. Don’t worry about looking stupid – it’s better to be a little stupid now than a lot stupid when you lose the business because you didn’t know what was really going on.

Rule Four: Keep asking until you understand.

This is an extension of Rules Two and Three. Your reaction to any answer to a question should be to ask yourself “So what?” You need to really understand what the prospect is getting at. Be sure you are getting specific, quantifiable information. You’ll know you’ve followed this rule when you ask “So what?” and know the answer.

Rule Five: Always be looking for the “no” answer.

This rule is about asking the hard questions that may lead to a conclusion that this is not a qualified prospect. The earlier you can find that out, the better – but the key word in the rule is “always”. As you go through your sales cycle, you never stop looking for the unqualified prospect and the problems that keep you from getting the sale.

I’ve written a lot more about this in my book, “Small Changes.” I’d like to hear if you have other rules about questions that work for you – leave a comment if you do, or if you disagree with mine.