When it comes to questions, are you using the Force or giving into the Dark Side?
In other words: Are questions taking your marketing to the next level, or jeopardizing your sales?
Today we have a two-for-one: 5 ways to harness the amazing power of questions, and then we switch gears to talk about the 5 areas where questions can kill your sales.
It’s a longer blog today—you’ll want to stay tuned to about 10:30 to know how questions can truly hurt you when you’re in the midst of selling. And at the end I give you the one hiring distinction I learned after decades of staffing both employees and contractors.
Lastly: Writing of questions—let us know if you have any questions you want us to answer in a future blog when you leave a comment below!
Thank you, Pam! This is a really helpful post. As a teacher, I’m always asking questions to engage the class/audience. Doing this intuitively, I’ve made a lot of mistakes over the years. You have done a great job here of analyzing what works and what doesn’t.
Thank you so much for your comments! I can relate as well – it only takes one question in the wrong context to take things down a path that doesn’t get the outcome or serve the audience!
Very nicely done, and very informative
Pam you are absolutely right about the timing of taking questions if you take them from the stage at all! I have been in situations where the questions were great and also in a situation where one person in the crowd tried to totally derail the presentation to try to put their agenda on stage. Needless to say that was a delicate situation. If I went with the person’s direction I would have lost the other over 300 audience members and if I didn’t handle that person respectfully the audience could have quickly turned on me. Luckily I handled it gracefully! Thanks for your insights! They were very helpful!
Asking questions is the quickest way to the heart of a problem or a solution.
As always, well done Pam.
Pam, I love the way you do things. I feel privileged to be part of your generous community.
Thank you, Joe.
What a nice message – I really appreciate you reaching out! I’ve been in business a long time and therefore have made a ton of mistakes and if it can help prevent others from doing the same, that’s a great way to spend my time. Thanks again. 🙂
Totally agree with you Pam, “There is tremendous power in questions if you know
how to use them appropriately”. If you ask the right question you will get what you want! By the time well spent when watching your videos and reading your content on this site. Keep up the good work and thank you.
Hi Pam
Thank you so much for this! I have always felt that “all questions are good questions” ——-hmnnn—-I think I will re-visit that along with “timing is everything”. Thanks for addressing the killer question that always hijacks the focus of the presentation.
Stephen, great comment! You are right – most people and personal development experts teach the power of questions and while that’s true, there is a context where they don’t serve. I learned the hard way! Glad you don’t have to! 🙂