Asking smart sales questions is more important than ever. The business world is advancing, and technology continues to drive complexity in industries. Sellers can stay competitive by knowing how to mine vital knowledge. 

Writing for Harvard Business Review (HBR), Arnaud Chevallier, Frédéric Dalsace, and Jean-​Louis Barsoux discuss this topic.

““Question-storming”—brainstorming for questions rather than answers—is now a creativity technique,” they write. 

The art of asking questions is a skill that sellers need to adopt and nurture. But as the authors point out, learning this skill isn’t a job requirement. Other professions, like lawyers and doctors, are trained on asking the right questions. Sellers aren’t. 

Learn to Ask Smart Sales Questions

The authors point out that smart question-​asking prioritizes quality over quantity. Meetings and calls only last so long; sellers need to use their time efficiently. They need to focus on asking questions that will deliver the best information. 

According to the authors’ research, there are five types of strategic questions: investigative, speculative, productive, interpretive, and subjective.

“Each unlocks a different aspect of the decision-​making process,” they write. “Together they can help you tackle key issues that are all too easy to miss.”

Using these questions maximizes your time with the buyer. 

Investigative Questions

Smart sales questions include investigative questions. These questions help sellers clarify a purpose. They reveal the basic important information and beyond. They go deeper to reveal information like nonobvious pain points and undiscovered opportunities. 

Think of questions that will help you go beneath the surface of the prospect or buyer’s primary needs. “How” and “why” questions are the most effective at doing this. 

These questions push buyers to think outside the box. As Keenan writes for Sales Growth, why-​focused questions are particularly effective. They can reveal information that drives prospects to take action. And this is what buyers want from you. 

SalesFuel’s B2B BuyerSCAN, reveals that “creative, out-​of-​the-​box thinking” is a top attribute that buyers want in a seller. 

“When we know why a customer or prospect wants to buy, why they want to change, why they are unhappy…we’re provided with the roadmap to solving their issues,” Keenan explains. 

When coming up with investigative questions, tap into your curiosity. Use it to determine which questions will shed the most light on the prospect’s purpose. This is ultimately what is motivating them, and what will drive them to buy.

Speculative Questions

Another type of smart sales question is the speculative type. According to HBR, investigative questions identify and explore issues in depth. Speculative questions help sellers consider those issues more broadly.

Questions that begin with “what if” and “what else” push buyers to consider paths they might not have without your questioning. You can inspire a new way of thinking by introducing unlikely scenarios. It forces the prospect to reframe their situation and gain a different perspective. 

“Speculative questions have the most creative potential because they encourage the respondent to brainstorm or use their imagination,” Andy Eklund writes. 

These questions also invite you to engage in a powerful sales technique: storytelling. You can integrate speculative questions into a story you tell. This can be a powerful way to present a potential reality to prospects. 

These are just two examples of the types of smart sales questions you should be asking. What you ask will set you apart from other sellers. And it will give you the in-​depth knowledge and understanding needed to sell your solution effectively. 

You’ll find the more you focus on “question-​storming,” the more you and your prospects will uncover together. And the easier it will be to position your solution as the best choice to move forward as a team.

Photo by Vitaly Gariev