Valuetainment - Episode 409： The Science of Asking Questions

00:00:00.000 30 seconds.

00:00:01.760 Did you ever think you would make it?

00:00:04.220 I feel I'm so close I could take sweet victory.

00:00:07.640 I know this life meant for me.

00:00:10.740 Yeah, why would you bet on Goliath when we got Bet David?

00:00:14.580 Valuetainment, giving value is contagious.

00:00:16.440 This world of entrepreneurs, we get no value to haters.

00:00:19.160 Now they run, homie, look what I become.

00:00:21.400 I'm the one.

00:00:22.560 I'm Patrick, Bet David, your host of Valuetainment.

00:00:24.220 Today we're going to talk about the science of asking questions.

00:00:27.240 Do certain salespeople ask better questions than others that get them results?

00:00:32.040 If yes, we're going to talk about it today.

00:00:33.880 A couple things we're going to do.

00:00:34.880 One, we're going to look at a few studies that have to do with asking questions.

00:00:38.040 Then the power of sequence, sequencing of your questions.

00:00:41.880 And then different formats of questions you can ask.

00:00:43.980 So having said that, let's get right into some of these studies.

00:00:46.520 The first study we're going to look at is called the Mere Measurement Effect.

00:00:49.980 It's a study done in 1993 by a few social scientists.

00:00:53.420 And the study they did was on 40,000 participants revealing that simply by asking a question

00:00:59.340 of the customers whether they were going to buy a car or not, increased the chances of

00:01:05.060 them buying a car by 35% in the next six months.

00:01:08.600 What does this mean?

00:01:09.700 Sometimes it's a simple question you ask.

00:01:11.840 Have you thought about buying a home?

00:01:13.240 Oh, I don't know if I have.

00:01:15.400 It increases the chances of them thinking about it.

00:01:17.480 Have you thought about going into a relationship?

00:01:18.980 Have you thought about getting into a business?

00:01:20.440 Have you thought about doing this?

00:01:21.280 It's processing, they're thinking about it.

00:01:23.380 Second study is by Journal of Applied Psychology, asking citizens whether they're going to vote

00:01:29.020 in an upcoming election, increases likelihood by 25%.

00:01:33.900 This is why you'll see a lot of people on both the left and the right will go out there

00:01:37.760 and say, you got to show up.

00:01:39.020 It's all about us showing up.

00:01:39.960 It's all about showing up.

00:01:40.700 Because they are trying to persuade their party to show up to vote.

00:01:44.980 Because the more they talk about it, increases the chances of people going and showing up.

00:01:49.060 A tech company did a study on 500,000 business-to-business sales conversations.

00:01:53.660 Imagine you're listening to 500,000 business-to-business sales conversations, trying to figure out

00:01:59.320 what is the optimal range of questions to ask that increases the chances of selling.

00:02:03.860 And this is what they came up with.

00:02:05.340 The magical number was 11 to 14 questions.

00:02:09.300 Anything above 14 questions diminished the ratios of them closing, which means there is

00:02:15.440 the right amount of questions to ask to get to the results that you want.

00:02:19.120 Just because you're asking a lot of questions doesn't mean you're being optimal.

00:02:22.360 You're just asking a lot of questions.

00:02:24.040 And the last study is by Harvard Business Review.

00:02:25.600 I'm going to share with you a Mu Sigma. 0.81

00:02:27.160 They polled 200 clients.

00:02:28.460 And this is what they asked them.

00:02:29.520 They said, when you go home and you're spending time with your kids, what percentage of the

00:02:33.900 conversation your kids have with you is statements, what percentage is questions.

00:02:37.920 They said 70% to 80% of the time when their kids are communicating with their parents,

00:02:42.320 it's questions.

00:02:43.720 Then the same poll asked the same clients, how about when you go out there and you're

00:02:47.920 talking to your clients, what percentage of your communication is questions and what

00:02:52.460 percentage is statements.

00:02:53.440 They said 15% to 25% is questions.

00:02:56.640 So their kids ask way more questions than they do.

00:03:00.420 So why is that an issue?

00:03:01.780 Here's why that's an issue.

00:03:03.060 Because when you look at the traditional educational system, we got recognized for answers.

00:03:07.180 When you look at entrepreneurs, creative minds, innovators, they get recognized for asking

00:03:12.140 the right questions that lead to finding the right solution to a problem, which then they

00:03:16.880 build a great business and it ends up selling or they make a lot of money doing it.

00:03:20.100 So now, you may be asking, Pat, who cares about these questions if I ask them or not?

00:03:23.700 Listen, the right sequence of questions helps you in sales, negotiation, dating.

00:03:28.040 You're sitting there dating, talking to somebody.

00:03:30.600 You're asking the question to get to a resolution of knowing if this is something you can pursue

00:03:34.520 or not.

00:03:35.340 Interviewing on a podcast.

00:03:36.480 You're running a podcast, a YouTube channel.

00:03:38.080 That's questioning.

00:03:38.840 Parenting, coaching.

00:03:39.960 It's all about questioning.

00:03:41.040 Think about it this way.

00:03:42.240 You are trying to get to an answer.

00:03:44.020 How many questions is it going to take you to get to your answer?

00:03:46.400 Start thinking about it in the right sequence because the right sequence of questions equals

00:03:50.920 to optimized results.

00:03:52.740 You're getting to what you want.

00:03:53.760 For example, if I was in sales early on, I would sit with a lot of clients and I would

00:03:59.220 spend an hour and a half trying to, you know, I'm working on Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.

00:04:02.140 I want this person to be a client.

00:04:03.460 Hour and a half later, they're not qualified.

00:04:04.840 What a waste of my hour and a half.

00:04:06.080 I was not experienced.

00:04:07.580 I was an amateur.

00:04:08.220 So then I started cleaning up my questions to know the sequence of asking so I don't

00:04:13.560 need to go an hour and a half.

00:04:14.620 Maybe I'm going 10 minutes.

00:04:15.580 Maybe I'm going 20 minutes.

00:04:16.760 If you're trying to qualify somebody to buy a home, if you're trying to qualify somebody

00:04:19.800 to go on a date with, if you're trying to qualify for somebody to be an investor, you're an

00:04:23.240 investor.

00:04:23.580 You're trying to buy into a business.

00:04:25.020 You ask the right questions to see if this is even the right business for you to invest

00:04:28.400 into.

00:04:29.060 That's the right sequencing of asking questions.

00:04:31.820 So now I'm going to give you a visual to help you see this a little bit more clear.

00:04:35.100 Remember, this is a sequence of questions you ask.

00:04:38.740 You pose your first question.

00:04:40.440 When you ask, you could get possibly two answers.

00:04:43.560 And you typically, you know, it could be a yes or a no.

00:04:45.920 It could be someone that's looking at investing over a million dollars or less than a million

00:04:49.880 dollars.

00:04:50.280 So you get that number.

00:04:51.240 Okay.

00:04:51.740 If they say less than a million dollars, whatever the question may be, their answer,

00:04:56.040 the next question is based on that answer.

00:04:57.840 Then you ask a question, you get two different answers.

00:05:00.560 If this is the answer, you get another question.

00:05:02.000 And then you see how this is working out, it's kind of going because you're trying to

00:05:05.800 get to what?

00:05:06.640 The right answer to qualify them.

00:05:09.460 This right here is why you got to do a lot of role play and anticipation.

00:05:14.220 So I would literally sit there and I would say, what could that client ask me?

00:05:17.960 And I'm sitting with a partner of mine that we're both in sales.

00:05:20.640 They could ask this.

00:05:21.540 Ooh, if they ask this.

00:05:23.040 If you ask this and they say this, what do you say?

00:05:25.240 Then you say this.

00:05:25.960 Maybe we got to eliminate this question.

00:05:27.460 I don't think this is really needed, but I do think we need to ask this question to help

00:05:30.220 us clarify on this part.

00:05:31.140 I like that.

00:05:31.620 So what if they say this?

00:05:32.540 You say this.

00:05:33.020 What if they say that?

00:05:33.660 They say this.

00:05:34.660 We role play this so much until the sequencing was so perfect.

00:05:37.760 It was like, okay, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

00:05:41.320 This is an art.

00:05:42.880 Once you figure it out, you cannot wait to go out there and sit with clients.

00:05:47.740 By the way, men who are great with women get great at it because they're so confident

00:05:53.300 because they know what questions to ask that leads to certain results.

00:05:55.900 Just like a salesperson, an investor, a CEO, a parent, a coach, all of them, it's based

00:06:01.000 on questioning, right?

00:06:02.380 So now, different formats of questions to ask.

00:06:05.120 Very basic.

00:06:05.800 One of them, introductory.

00:06:07.520 How are you?

00:06:08.440 What's your name?

00:06:09.820 That's introductory.

00:06:10.800 Next one is mirror.

00:06:12.100 Hi, how are you?

00:06:13.240 Good.

00:06:13.540 I'm good.

00:06:14.260 How are you?

00:06:14.920 Mirror.

00:06:15.320 You're mirroring their questions, right?

00:06:16.700 So that's pretty basic of building rapport.

00:06:19.200 Next, transition question.

00:06:21.420 Hi, how are you?

00:06:22.260 Tell me about yourself, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:06:23.540 And I'm from there, by the way, how long have you been a business owner here?

00:06:26.600 By the way, that's transition.

00:06:28.120 We're transitioning.

00:06:28.720 Or maybe you're going through a set of things that you're presenting.

00:06:31.200 So this leads me to dot, dot, dot, dot, dot.

00:06:33.640 And you pose your next question.

00:06:35.400 Next one is follow-up questions, which follow-up questions, believe it or not, in here are one

00:06:40.280 of the most valuable questions to ask because follow-up is you ask this, you ask this, they

00:06:45.640 give this, then you give this.

00:06:47.260 And then as you get deeper, it gets better and better.

00:06:49.600 A great interviewer knows what question to ask afterwards, while a mediocre one will

00:06:54.600 go completely here.

00:06:55.540 You were about to get deeper on a topic where you were about to get to the point.

00:06:59.400 That's going to be the climax, right?

00:07:01.000 The same thing with business.

00:07:02.260 So a follow-up question could be, they say something, you ask the right follow-up question

00:07:06.660 that's leading again to the result that you want.

00:07:09.140 That's follow-up questions.

00:07:10.660 Clarifying questions.

00:07:11.760 So, you know, Bob, let me clarify this real quick.

00:07:13.820 So, are you trying to say that what you're looking for is somewhere, a house that's going

00:07:19.360 to be close to a freeway, close to your kid's school, you would like it to be four-bedroom,

00:07:23.680 you don't want it to be two-bedroom, a little bit of a backcable, you're not somebody that

00:07:27.120 wants to have a pool, and you would like it to be designed, is that pretty much what

00:07:30.440 you're, yes, that's what I'm asking for, clarifying.

00:07:32.480 Clarifying could be your kids.

00:07:34.680 Hey, are you telling me that you would like to do something like this for your birthday?

00:07:38.080 Yes.

00:07:38.380 Okay, great.

00:07:39.040 Clarifying questions, right?

00:07:40.720 Next one is bridging comparison questions.

00:07:42.820 What does this mean?

00:07:44.480 So, you know, John, based on what you just said here, how much of this applies to every

00:07:49.080 industry?

00:07:49.720 What do you mean?

00:07:50.640 Well, you just said that, you know, in the bodybuilding world, you know, the level of

00:07:55.020 discipline that requires to be detailed about your diet, all this other stuff, how much of

00:07:58.980 this also applies to somebody that's running a business?

00:08:01.320 How much detail do you think, oh, very much so.

00:08:03.660 You know, you're bridging the two different things together.

00:08:05.900 You're making a comparison to make a point to them, right?

00:08:08.940 And then the last one I have here is digging deeper questions.

00:08:11.140 So, you ask one layer of question, another layer of question, another layer, now it's

00:08:16.100 to dig in deeper questions.

00:08:17.440 So, in reality, is it fair to say that, da, da, da, da, da, da, da?

00:08:20.540 Yeah.

00:08:20.860 So, how do you feel about this?

00:08:22.040 That's getting digging even deeper than that.

00:08:23.860 And by the way, there's another 30 ways of asking this question.

00:08:26.060 The whole purpose of this is to help you think about questions in a whole different

00:08:29.520 way to help you in your business life and your personal life.

00:08:32.180 Thanks, everybody, for listening.

00:08:33.500 And by the way, if you haven't already subscribed to Valuetainment on iTunes, please do so.

00:08:38.100 Give us a five-star.

00:08:39.540 Write a review if you haven't already.

00:08:41.000 And if you have any questions for me that you may have, you can always find me on Snapchat,

00:08:45.000 Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.

00:08:46.940 Just search my name, PatrickBitDavid.

00:08:48.860 And I actually do respond back when you snap me or send me a message on Instagram.

00:08:53.700 With that being said, have a great day today.

00:08:55.500 Take care, everybody.

00:08:56.240 Bye-bye.

00:08:56.500 Bye-bye.

Valuetainment - January 01, 2020

Episode 409： The Science of Asking Questions

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