All questions are not equal

The American Educational Psychologist Benjamin Bloom (1913–99) classified questions into six progressively more sophisticated levels known as Bloom’s Hierarchy of Questions. Here is a summary of his scheme:

Level one, knowledge-based questions, is the first and simplest of questioning techniques used for gathering information. After the poet and writer Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) wrote a short poem about them, they also became known as Kipling Questions. Here is his poem:

I keep six honest serving men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.

Questions beginning with these words are naturally open, have varying degrees of effectiveness and elicit different forms of information.

Open questions

Starting questions with the following words will ensure they are open, pre-suppositional and powerful.

Questions starting with ‘How’ tend to be assumptive and those beginning with ‘What’ elicit more thoughtful replies. ‘What if’ lead questions are an alternative way of directing your prospect to ‘imagine’ something and reflect before answering, and are very powerful indeed.

Vocabulary of awareness

When referring to awareness patterns, we mean a small set of words in the English language that imply knowledge and, compellingly, everything said after them is pre-supposed to be true. When you use these words to describe the benefits of any product or service, the only open question is your prospect’s ‘awareness’ of the advantages of your offering.

Notice	See/seen	Realise
Aware	Experience	Discover

Using this lexis helps your prospect to take mental ownership of your product or service at an early stage in your meeting. Towards the end of your presentation, asking closed questions will clarify requirements and gain commitment.

Powerful questions

The questions below are those a sales professional might ask a potential client. They are all powerful, requiring thoughtful answers. By reading them often, you can, perhaps, absorb the vocabulary, imagine your sales environment and tailor this questioning format to your business and individual style.

1. What are you seeking to achieve here?

   Response	We need to streamline this department to cut costs and increase productivity. Also, we have a problem with uniformity of service delivery.
   Analysis	This is a broad, powerful ‘What lead’ opening question, structured to yield as much information as possible. It is also pre-suppositional because it presumes the prospective client is seeking to achieve something.

2. What did you first notice to make you realise you need XYZ?

   Response	Our IT services were not uniform across the company and the department was haemorrhaging money because we had overused costly contractors.
   Analysis	This powerful ‘What lead’ question seeks further information and uses the vocabulary of awareness, the words notice and realise. This question is pre-suppositional, as it is assumed something was seen and the prospect understands something is needed. It also contains an embedded suggestion, ‘you need XYZ’. (where XYZ is your product, service or company).

3. Can you imagine continuing like this much longer?

   Response	No, not really, because . . .
   Analysis	This closed question uses the vocabulary of internal representation. The word ‘Imagine’ instructs the prospect to imagine the impact of carrying on as they are and the negative response confirms they would prefer not to.

4. How do you see our products satisfying your requirements?

   Response

   They will enable us to achieve 90 per cent automation of our department by Q4 and savings of 75 per cent.

   Analysis

   This is an assumptive question, as it begins with the word ‘how’ and it uses the vocabulary of awareness with the word ‘see’. The prospect is invited to ‘see’ how the products offered will satisfy their needs. A prospect might say, ‘I was rather hoping you would tell me’, which would be a fantastic answer. The sales professional may continue with, ‘Of course, tell me, what do you need to achieve here?’ And so the dialogue progresses.

5. Do you need to cut costs now?

   Response	Yes, because . . .
   Analysis	A closed question, beginning with the word ‘do’ elicits a ‘yes’ response and acclimatises the client in this example to saying yes. It also conceals the embedded suggestion, ‘cut costs now’.

6. Do you need to start the process within the next five months?

   Response	Yes, because . . .
   Analysis	This closed question elicits a ‘yes’ response and conceals the embedded suggestion, ‘start the process’.

7. Which of our solutions most interests you? Is it A + description or B + description?

   Response	Both seem good, though option B will mostly satisfy our requirements.
   Analysis	This is a powerful classic, closing pre-suppositional question, assuming that one of the solutions offered will interest the prospect. However, use with care and only if the context is right. Prospects are very savvy and this is a very obvious close.

Follow open questions with closed questions. Use closed questions to lead your prospect to reaffirm crucial points, positive and negative, that they have already stated.

Embedding suggestions into questions

When we ask questions, we actively control the degree of flexibility we offer our prospects to formulate their responses; effectively, we are scoping their reply.

Powerful questions accomplish much more than purely eliciting information; they become powerfully persuasive when embedded commands, suggestions and the response we seek are covertly concealed within them, thus guiding the conversation forward towards the subjects we wish our customer to think about and discuss. To accomplish this, it is essential at the outset to identify the suggestions you want to embed and then carefully construct your question around them.

To illustrate this, we have inserted some simple, mostly generic commands into the following questions:

Analysis An estate agent could use this question. The scope of the response is pre-determined. In this particular pre-suppositional question, it is presumed that the potential purchaser would change something if they were to live in the house. When the client responds with what they might change, they have imagined themselves living there. The phrase ‘live in this house’ is an embedded command, given as a message to the subconscious to do just that!

Remember, the subconscious mind is the route of least resistance and will ruminate upon this command, without conscious awareness. The agent could, similarly, say, ‘This is a fantastic location. If I could live in this house now, I’d extend the kitchen, wouldn’t you?’ This is ingenious, because the client’s subconscious mind picks up, ‘I could live in this house now, I’d extend the kitchen’. The tag question, ‘wouldn’t you?’ invites agreement and the pronoun shift ‘I/you’ transfers everything said before it onto the client.

Analysis On face value, this apparently straightforward question appears to invite the prospect to request further information before completing the purchase. It is covertly suggesting to the potential purchaser that they are ‘ready to buy now’. Note the positioning of the word ‘now’. Is it at the end of the phrase, ‘ready to buy now’ or at the beginning of the phrase ‘now what further information’? Alternatively, the sales professional might say, ‘Before you are ready to make your decision, now what further information can I offer you?’

Analysis This simple question suggests the prospect think about the differences that having a new security system will make within a given timeframe. The linguistic (auditory) ambiguity ‘by or buy this’ is covertly suggesting that the prospect do just that. It is a powerful ‘What lead’ pre-suppositional question, as it presumes there will be some differences. Depending upon how the question is delivered, you might spot a dispersed embedded command, suggesting, ‘buy this security system’.

Analysis This powerful ‘What lead’ pre-suppositional question format embeds the command ‘want this’ or ‘really want this’ while appearing to enquire about how the client sees the principle use of the vehicle. The message to ‘want this car’ slips effortlessly into the subconscious mind of the listener, reinforcing desire as they consider how to answer the surface question.

Question format

The previous questions broadly follow this format:

What do you + want/need this + (product/service) to do for you/your company/this office

You will have noticed, throughout this section, the absence of the word ‘why’. While high up on the persuasive scale for some, we would suggest minimising its use as a question opener, as it can be considered inquisitorial; it may induce a defensive response in some and, if repeated, will seem antagonistic. In most situations, a question beginning with ‘why’ can be reformed to begin with ‘what’. Questions starting with ‘How’ and ‘What’ are inherently powerful and pre-suppositional.

Correctly constructing your questions will give tremendous influence in either opening or narrowing the options available to your customer.

• Incorporate the vocabulary of awareness and internal representation, such as: notice, see, realise, aware, experience, discover, consider, contemplate, think about, what if, imagine, how about, if you could have. This will dramatically increase the effectiveness of your questioning technique.
• When you wish to evoke a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response, ask questions beginning with: do, could, would or are.
• Formulate your questions in advance to ensure you receive the answers you want to hear.
• Do not over-complicate your questions, as those using familiar everyday words are accepted and answered more precisely.
• If you choose to embed commands into your questions, keep them short. The command should be a maximum of four words.

Now you are aware of how much more persuasive you will be when asking powerful questions, it is worrying to think about what will happen if you fail to do so. Isn’t it? Imagine losing more business and paving the way for the competition. You have realised that getting close to your sales target can sometimes be a struggle. Haven’t you?

Consider the reduction in your spending power if your bonus drops. What if job security became an issue? Let’s face it, holding down a sales job in an increasingly competitive market is not easy, is it?

We are pleased to say that we do not want you to be concerned about any of this happening. Because it is our mission to ensure you never experience professional failure. You see, we are going to guide you smoothly and quickly through the process of acquiring the skills to quantum leap your questioning and persuasive abilities. Now, you can get really enthused about this, can’t you?

It is very likely you already use all of these questioning formats in your daily life, at work and home. Now, by consciously applying the appropriate kind of questioning, you can plant suggestions gain the information, response or outcome you seek even more efficiently.