Do you ask questions or make statements? When was the last time you checked yourself or your team members on a call/conversation? One of my favorite lines from a mentor many years ago was “selling ain’t telling bro.”
It’s not what we say on a sales call or in a meeting, it’s what we ask that is most important. Think about yourself for a moment, do you like to be told something or discovering something for yourself?
How often are you asking questions versus telling stories or making statements? I can’t tell you how many times I have witnessed and heard folks making a statement and then raising the tonal inflection at the end to turn it into a question. “You’re hearing that.” Just using a higher tone inflection at the end of a sentence doesn’t make it a question.
Have some fun – consider making a quick tally sheet. Try it – take a piece of paper on your next meeting – put a Q and a S. Then just tally as the meeting unfolds. You might be surprised to see how many statements you or your team makes.
I am not suggesting we can lead by only asking questions. Nor am I suggesting you can manage a whole sales call by just asking questions. I am suggesting we need to help ourselves and our teams to be better skilled at asking questions.
Let’s first work to bring awareness to the limited number of questions we ask and then coach ourselves and our teams on the questions we can ask. Isn’t our intent to get the other side of the table talking twice as much as we are? Great line “God gave us 2 ears and one mouth for a reason.” Let’s use them with that ratio.
So I ask you…
How prepared are you?
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