Asking the Most Important Question

Earlier this month I was part of a training exercise for our company that was designed by our sales consultancy.  2 days filled with role playing and other exercises to stretch us to better serve our clients.

The 27 of us were divided into 3 competing teams.  Over the two days I had a love/hate relationship with our trainer.

When it was all over, I wasn’t sure what I learned.  I mean after being in the marketing and advertising since I was 26, let’s say 2 decades due to time away pursuing other career interests, there isn’t much I haven’t learned, heard, or taught.

Most of this training is a refresher.  A reminder.  Perhaps a new structure of organization of the same basic principles, but rarely something brand new.  But the following week, I realized the benefit I got from those couple of days and started putting those lessons back into daily practice.

So what is the Most Important Question that you and I need to ask?

It could be asking them about money and budgets.  It could be about who makes the decisions. These were a couple that we discovered during the exercise.

But the most important question is one that you should ask every time.  You should ask it after you have asked many of the other must ask questions:

What else should I know that we haven’t talked about yet?

You can adapt this to any selling Q & A, with one condition.  Make sure you keep it open ended.  You don’t want a yes or no answer.  You want to discover what is really important and this question can open that door.