3 Key Questions

We all know the value of asking good questions.

A good friend, Mike Hancock from ‘Rock Your Life’ said the quality of your questions determines the quality of your life. He may have been paraphrasing someone else, I don’t really know, but he's right. I've started using three particular questions that have made all the difference in my business.

1 The first question you ask just as soon as you meet up with a regular client.

That question is: “Is there anything we need to put on the table that hasn't worked well between the last time and this time?” 

If there's a problem don't let it sit unresolved. We shy away from this sort of conflict but the sooner you can find that problem and deal with it, that less of a problem it is. It hasn’t been able to grow into a big problem yet.

I had one client who benefited greatly from using this question. The representative entered the meeting and asked “Is there anything we need to put on the table that's gone wrong that we need to fix?” The answer was yes. A sexual harassment charge had been laid against one of the client’s delivery people. That's not a small problem.

The delivery person was an English man. He said to one of the company’s female workers something along the lines of ‘Ello love, you all right then? How you doing darling?’. He meant no offense; it was just the way he talked. He’d even said the same thing to this particular lady many times before over the months they had been working together. On that particular day she took offense and went up and laid a complaint. Further investigation found that in fact she had just had an absolutely terrible day and ended up taking some of that frustration out of the delivery person.  

Had the rep not asked what would the impact be for that company for future deliveries and future business? It would have snowballed out of hand. What was stopped by asking that simple question? 

“Is there anything we need to put on the table that hasn't worked well between the last time and this time?” 

Deal with those little problems. Get them out of the way, and then have a positive appointment from that point on. 

2  The second question that I've started using is what I call the 'Columbo question'. 

It’s named for Peter Foulkes’ character from the TV program ‘Columbo’. As a detective he would interview people and then, as he turned to leave, just he was going out the door he would look back and he'd say ‘by the way one more question’. Then he would hit them with the key question that proved their guilt. 

While we’re not trying to prove anyone is guilty, I’ve found that people tend to relax once the official meeting is over.  They’re already thinking about next thing and their guard goes down a little. This isn't meant to be a sneaky tactic or anything. It's just the way humans are built. Once their guard is lowered a little you can ask a question that you might not normally ask and get quite an insightful answer.

 ‘Just before I go, who do you buy cheese from at the moment? How much you pay?’ You get the answer.

‘Oh, just before I go I didn't ask you about ...., can we discuss that next time?’ They’re more likely to say yes.

 That last ‘Columbo’ type question gives you a chance to make a sale or find out a bit of information. It is a great time to pop one last question in. You'd be amazed what comes up.

At the very end of an appointment - especially with a new client - I will often ask “Is there anything we haven't discussed that you think is important that we should?” Nine times out of ten the answer is no. It’s that tenth time that really matters. You can't be a mind reader. You can't know all the politics of an organization. You don't know what's going on behind the scenes. So ask someone who does know all of that information. 

I have some personal examples. 

1. I've done some work in the audiology area, and there was one company in particular that I was approaching to do some work for. I asked the question. “Is there anything we haven't discussed that you think is important that we should?”. That’s when he told me that they were entertaining the possible purchase by another company.  That’s a key piece of information that I needed to know so I could approach them in the right way.

2.  Again, without this question I may have lost the largest contract I've ever had. As I was walking out the door from a meeting with the divisional manager, I said, "Is anything that we should discuss that would make a difference, anything I've missed?” That’s when I found out that in the next three months the whole management team I had been working with would be completely replaced.

I'd spent over a year trying to get that contract signed and we were just at the point of signing. Can you imagine difference would it make if I'd gone back in April to find a whole new management team? Knowing that I wouldn’t be dealing with that divisional manager for the actual signing anymore, I asked if I could meet the new manager  - we got that contract signed.

Three little questions that can make a big difference to your business 

1. Is there anything we need to put on the table that hasn't worked well between the last time and this time?” 

2. The Columbo Question – or the ‘Just before I go…’ question. 

3. Is there anything we haven't discussed that you think is important that we should?

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