THE ROLE OF OPEN ENDED QUESTIONS

AND THEIR CONSTRUCTION

THROUGH INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS

Open questions are linguistic structures designed to obtain information from the recipient. Unlike closed questions, they involve our interlocutors, who are willing to provide us with more information. In direct sales, the customer first wonders before he responds. Very often we ourselves will be able to notice that after asking a well-prepared open question, our interlocutor tilts backwards, taking a deep breath. This is due to the  that he was surprised by the question that forced him to share more information about a topic.

"The use of open questions encourages the client

to actively talk and articulate his needs"

We have noticed that asking questions of this type increases our confidence in the conversation. This certainty decreases for those customers who try to criticize our products and often ourselves at the very beginning of the conversation. All techniques and activities aimed at increasing our certainty in sales conversations are particularly recommended by me.

Open questions allow our customers to:

- open more,

- share their observations on the case,

- describe their experience so far,

- express their expectations and plans,

- share their own knowledge of the subject,

- to present their opinions,

- create an atmosphere full of respect.

From the point of view of benefits for the sellers themselves, the use of open questions allows them:

- minimize stress,

- engage the client in the conversation,

- identify needs,

- raise awareness of needs that customers are unaware of,

- transfer the weight of the conversation to the customer,

- suggest products and solutions that are optimally tailored to the needs of customers,

- control the course of the conversation by focusing on notes and scripts,

At the moment when our customer begins to speak freely about some topic, the seller can easily use pre-prepared materials (notebooks, price lists, catalogues, etc.)

- focus more on the interlocutor,

- develop the ability to listen to others,

A good open question will cause the customer to share their needs and insights with us, which will prompt us to listen intensively.

- skillfully keep notes,

Initially, we may wonder what it the connection between asking questions and keeping notes. The amount of information our interlocutor will provide us with as a result of the task of the open question may surprise us. When conducting sales training, when I used to record role-playing exercises, it turned out that our brain was unable to remember all this information effectively. Initially, it seems to us that we are recording all the needs of our interlocutors, but the hearing shows us that the customer has discovered some information before us that we have not been able to return to. The ability to take notes is created by the task of a good open question. When asking closed questions, we basically have nothing to save.

- develop our empathy,

There is a lot of talk of commercial empathy. Sellers who can enter the role of the customer achieve more, which is associated with the use of an effective method of sale. You can't develop empathic skills if our needs testing model isn't based on asking open questions.

- standardize the handling process by building your own scripts (scenarios),

Our experimentation with asking open questions will make it easier for us to ask an effective question with each subsequent attempt. This skill will be especially useful in standardizing our personal and telephone conversations. In addition, we will be able to use it in the training of colleagues and in managing a team of other people.

- unmask claim customers and those who will probably never buy our products anyway.

Let us note that the interrogative pronouns in the open questions are less than in closed questions. In principle, we have at our disposal   what    and its variants:  in what, for what and How . In turn why I  have suggested  to replace with such as construction:   what is the reason.  

Open questions starting with the interrogative pronouns What

Example 1.

"What is most important to you in working with a company like mine?"

Example 2.

"What do you pay attention to when choosing new suppliers?"

Example 3.

"What can make you decide to start working with a new company?"

Example 4.

"For what purpose (Why?) do you use such product solutions?"

Example 5.

"What can (or: what factors) make us sign a cooperation agreement?"

Example 6.

"What do you understand specifically by the concept of a solid supplier?"?”

Example 7.

"I understand that price can be a negotiating parameter that is important to you, and what else can you pay attention to in addition to prices?"

Open questions starting with the interrogative

pronouns How

Example 1.

"How does the situation of my proposal  look like?"

When asking this question, we ask you to provide information about the results of our previous conversations. It forces more information to be provided.

Example 2.

How can we make some concessions that may be so interesting  that we can sit back into the talks?"

Example 3.

"How can we meet your previous expectations?"

Example 4.

"How do You most often use such as  products in your company?"

Example 5.

"How can we support your company in reselling our products?"

Example 6.

"How can we  you use such products?"

Example 7.

"How can we secure your previous expectations?"

However, we may also engage our customers in providing broader answers by clarifying our questions.

More information about asking open ended questions in sales you can find in book "The art of selling in practice-practical training guidebook" was written by Krzysztof Czupryński Sales book