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December 28, 2010 at 07:00 PM
Your business is most likely based on asking questions, but why? The answer is rooted in psychology – the person who asks the questions controls the situation. But there’s a catch: you have to ask the right kind of question at the right time. If you can do that, you can be far more effective at getting people to listen to you. Here are the reasons:
1. Questions help build rapport and trust. They show people you’re listening to them and that you’re genuinely interested in what they have to say. Questions provide a perfect way to gently introduce yourself and tie what you do directly to what matters most to your client.
2. Questions help people self-discover you. Self-discovery gets people to persuade themselves, and research shows this self-discovery approach to be most effective. The bottom line: People believe what they say not what you say.
3. Questions enhance your credibility. They make you look smart, self-confident, interesting and interested in the other person. They give you an opportunity to show your wisdom, expertise and experience without pontificating or running off at the mouth.
How do questions work?
1. We are compelled to answer. There’s something in our makeup as humans that causes a sort of automatic answering reflex when we are asked a question. It’s related to our need for completion. A question is like a joke without a punch line, or the first line of a popular song. It’s incomplete, and the other person starts to fill in the blanks to complete it. That’s what you want.
