The Client Letter
December 4, 2013
The Desert of Arizona
Rain 49 Degrees
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The most profitable punctuation mark in business, by far, is the question mark.
But you just can’t ask any question. Any you can’t just ask any question in any type of way.
How you ask the question makes all the difference.
Let’s go back to the car lot where I used to work for a quick example.
One thing the car lot did right was to give their employees a lot of sales training.
In particular, we got phone training for when it was our turn to take what they called “phone pops.”
That’s when we got to sit down and answer the phone that took the incoming calls from advertisements.
Let’s say you want to get someone’s cell phone number. There are basically two ways to ask. One is far more successful than the other.
Before the training, most people would ask, “Do you have a cell phone number?”
Asking a question like that will give you mixed results. The biggest reason is that embedded in the question is a direct escape route for your prospect.
They can simply say, “No.”
You’re done after that, no cell phone number for you.
The better way to ask this question is to say, “What’s your cell phone number?”
This will get a much higher response.
First of all, you’re assuming they do have a cell phone right from the getgo.
Second, you’re asking them directly for the information you want.
Most people are trained to respond to a direct question with a direct answer.
You can apply this structure of question in many ways to your service business.
Let’s say you’re interviewing a prospect about challenges in their business.
You can ask, “Are there any big challenges you’re facing right now?”
You’ll most likely get a fair amount of “Nos” to that question.
But if you ask, “What big challenges are you facing?”, THAT’S going to get you your answer.
Over the years, questions have been responsible for an enormous amount of my income. And it’s a skill that just about anyone can develop.
If you want to learn how to put this to use in your business, you can find out here.