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In an earlier post I talked about the importance of open ended questions. You remember that open ended questions are questions that can only be answered with an explanation. This kind of question helps the sales process along because it gets more information from your customers or prospects and helps to build a relationship with them. Let me be clear about one thing however; there is a place for closed ended questions too. Closed ended questions can be answered with just one or two words.

Customer: “Your price is a little high, but you’ve got them in inventory and I need them tomorrow.”
Salesperson: “Do you want me to put them on order right now to ensure that you get them on time?”

What a great example of a directed closed ended question. Closed ended questions work best when we are trying to steer a customer or prospect in a certain direction. Think of them as a railroad switch where the train is put on a different track in an instant. We’re not trying to build relationships or get additional information. We’re simply trying to get the customer or prospect to move in a different direction.

Keep these points in mind regarding closed ended questions:

1. You’ll use more of them as you get closer to making the sale. This happens because you are trying to influence the customer or prospect’s thinking in a direct way. If you are using a lot of closed ended questions at the beginning of a relationship you’re probably making mistakes.
2. Open ended questions are great, but you can’t use them for everything. There are times when closed ended questions are more appropriate for the information you need.
3. Too many or poorly contrived open ended questions can hurt more than they can help. Sometimes a closed ended question seems more sincere.
4. Don’t confuse a series of closed ended questions for an open ended question. I see this error almost every time I work with a salesperson. If you machine-gun a customer or prospect with closed ended questions you’ll definitely turn them off. Use closed ended questions sparingly and they’ll have more impact. Telemarketers and “sales-is-a-numbers-game” prospectors are the most frequent violators of this rule. They’ll call up a prospect and just kill them with a relentless series of closed ended questions.

There is most assuredly a place for closed ended questions in the sales process. The problem is that a lot of salespeople only use closed ended questions or use them at the wrong time in the relationship.

Tags: questions

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