Open Ended Questions

I always had pretty good social instincts. I subscribe to the theory of multiple intelligences. Although my analytical skills are not great, my social intelligence is off the hook. When I was growing up, open ended questions were part of my standard repertoire. I loved to get people talking about themselves when I was trying to make new friends. It was the surest way to get people to like me. I knew instinctively that, if I could show interest in someone and what they did, they would think I was a cool kind of guy.

When I first got into sales, however, I was surprisingly bad at it. I tried all the stock sales techniques that I was taught, but none of them seemed to work. Everything felt kind of forced, and people just weren’t buying. I knew that I should be good at sales, so I went back to the basics. I thought about what I already knew from my interactions with people. That is when I discovered the key.

The same techniques that I had been using to make friends since I was very young would work very well in sales, I soon found out. In particular, open ended questions were a treasure trove. Asking the right questions could make a sale with almost anyone. Of course, there are the standard salesman questions that you learn things like do you appreciate quality, do you like good cars, or are you sick of shoddy products? Nonetheless, you do even better by being more creative with your open question.

Sometimes, the best open ended questions have nothing to do with sales. Usually, what I do is to observe one thing about the person i am talking to and ask them about it. If you know about sports, cars, politics, and a wide range of other popular topics it helps. The key is to be able to chat people up and get them interested in talking to you. By showing interest in the same things that they are interested in, you can really cultivate a rapport. And from that report will come your sales.

Since i have been asking open ended questions and learning to schmooze with the customers a little bit, my sales quota has gone through the roof. I won the best salesman award three months in a row, and things do not seem to be slowing down. Sometimes, just mastering a few simple techniques is enough to really turn things around for you. For me, it turned me from a failure to a rising star.