Seven Keys to Great Sales Questions

You can't understand a prospect's true needs and desires without asking the right questions during your sales calls. Here are the seven keys to productive "information gathering" when you're speaking with a prospect:

1. Plan the conversation. If you don't know what questions to ask, you won't discover... anything useful.
2. Rehearse the conversation. Effective questioning requires the three "P's": practice, practice, practice.
3. Relax during the conversation. Questions must flow naturally out of the conversation, not inserted as interruptions.
4. Lead with open questions. Better to ask a leading question that's too general than one that solicits a one word answer.
5. Shut your trap. During a sales call, your mouth should be moving less than half the time, at most.
6. Listen; really listen. Listening, not asking, is the most important element of effective questioning.
7. Don't rush the process. Effective questioning is 90 percent patience and only 10 percent chutzpah.