Episode 409： The Science of Asking Questions
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
211.3049
Summary
In this episode, we re going to talk about the science of asking questions and why you need to ask more questions to get better at selling. Sales is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, and there s a reason why it s so important to ask a lot of questions.
Transcript
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I feel I'm so close I could take sweet victory.
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Yeah, why would you bet on Goliath when we got Bet David?
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This world of entrepreneurs, we get no value to haters.
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I'm Patrick, Bet David, your host of Valuetainment.
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Today we're going to talk about the science of asking questions.
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Do certain salespeople ask better questions than others that get them results?
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One, we're going to look at a few studies that have to do with asking questions.
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Then the power of sequence, sequencing of your questions.
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And then different formats of questions you can ask.
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So having said that, let's get right into some of these studies.
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The first study we're going to look at is called the Mere Measurement Effect.
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It's a study done in 1993 by a few social scientists.
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And the study they did was on 40,000 participants revealing that simply by asking a question
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of the customers whether they were going to buy a car or not, increased the chances of
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them buying a car by 35% in the next six months.
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It increases the chances of them thinking about it.
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Have you thought about going into a relationship?
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Have you thought about getting into a business?
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Second study is by Journal of Applied Psychology, asking citizens whether they're going to vote
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in an upcoming election, increases likelihood by 25%.
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This is why you'll see a lot of people on both the left and the right will go out there
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Because they are trying to persuade their party to show up to vote.
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Because the more they talk about it, increases the chances of people going and showing up.
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A tech company did a study on 500,000 business-to-business sales conversations.
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Imagine you're listening to 500,000 business-to-business sales conversations, trying to figure out
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what is the optimal range of questions to ask that increases the chances of selling.
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Anything above 14 questions diminished the ratios of them closing, which means there is
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the right amount of questions to ask to get to the results that you want.
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Just because you're asking a lot of questions doesn't mean you're being optimal.
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And the last study is by Harvard Business Review.
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They said, when you go home and you're spending time with your kids, what percentage of the
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conversation your kids have with you is statements, what percentage is questions.
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They said 70% to 80% of the time when their kids are communicating with their parents,
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Then the same poll asked the same clients, how about when you go out there and you're
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talking to your clients, what percentage of your communication is questions and what
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So their kids ask way more questions than they do.
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Because when you look at the traditional educational system, we got recognized for answers.
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When you look at entrepreneurs, creative minds, innovators, they get recognized for asking
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the right questions that lead to finding the right solution to a problem, which then they
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build a great business and it ends up selling or they make a lot of money doing it.
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So now, you may be asking, Pat, who cares about these questions if I ask them or not?
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Listen, the right sequence of questions helps you in sales, negotiation, dating.
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You're sitting there dating, talking to somebody.
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You're asking the question to get to a resolution of knowing if this is something you can pursue
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How many questions is it going to take you to get to your answer?
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Start thinking about it in the right sequence because the right sequence of questions equals
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For example, if I was in sales early on, I would sit with a lot of clients and I would
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spend an hour and a half trying to, you know, I'm working on Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.
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So then I started cleaning up my questions to know the sequence of asking so I don't
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If you're trying to qualify somebody to buy a home, if you're trying to qualify somebody
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to go on a date with, if you're trying to qualify for somebody to be an investor, you're an
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You ask the right questions to see if this is even the right business for you to invest
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That's the right sequencing of asking questions.
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So now I'm going to give you a visual to help you see this a little bit more clear.
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Remember, this is a sequence of questions you ask.
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When you ask, you could get possibly two answers.
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And you typically, you know, it could be a yes or a no.
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It could be someone that's looking at investing over a million dollars or less than a million
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If they say less than a million dollars, whatever the question may be, their answer,
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Then you ask a question, you get two different answers.
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If this is the answer, you get another question.
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And then you see how this is working out, it's kind of going because you're trying to
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This right here is why you got to do a lot of role play and anticipation.
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So I would literally sit there and I would say, what could that client ask me?
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And I'm sitting with a partner of mine that we're both in sales.
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If you ask this and they say this, what do you say?
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I don't think this is really needed, but I do think we need to ask this question to help
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We role play this so much until the sequencing was so perfect.
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It was like, okay, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
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Once you figure it out, you cannot wait to go out there and sit with clients.
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By the way, men who are great with women get great at it because they're so confident
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because they know what questions to ask that leads to certain results.
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Just like a salesperson, an investor, a CEO, a parent, a coach, all of them, it's based
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Tell me about yourself, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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And I'm from there, by the way, how long have you been a business owner here?
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Or maybe you're going through a set of things that you're presenting.
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Next one is follow-up questions, which follow-up questions, believe it or not, in here are one
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of the most valuable questions to ask because follow-up is you ask this, you ask this, they
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And then as you get deeper, it gets better and better.
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A great interviewer knows what question to ask afterwards, while a mediocre one will
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You were about to get deeper on a topic where you were about to get to the point.
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So a follow-up question could be, they say something, you ask the right follow-up question
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that's leading again to the result that you want.
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So, you know, Bob, let me clarify this real quick.
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So, are you trying to say that what you're looking for is somewhere, a house that's going
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to be close to a freeway, close to your kid's school, you would like it to be four-bedroom,
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you don't want it to be two-bedroom, a little bit of a backcable, you're not somebody that
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wants to have a pool, and you would like it to be designed, is that pretty much what
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you're, yes, that's what I'm asking for, clarifying.
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Hey, are you telling me that you would like to do something like this for your birthday?
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So, you know, John, based on what you just said here, how much of this applies to every
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Well, you just said that, you know, in the bodybuilding world, you know, the level of
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discipline that requires to be detailed about your diet, all this other stuff, how much of
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this also applies to somebody that's running a business?
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How much detail do you think, oh, very much so.
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You know, you're bridging the two different things together.
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You're making a comparison to make a point to them, right?
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And then the last one I have here is digging deeper questions.
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So, you ask one layer of question, another layer of question, another layer, now it's
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So, in reality, is it fair to say that, da, da, da, da, da, da, da?
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And by the way, there's another 30 ways of asking this question.
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The whole purpose of this is to help you think about questions in a whole different
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way to help you in your business life and your personal life.
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And by the way, if you haven't already subscribed to Valuetainment on iTunes, please do so.
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And if you have any questions for me that you may have, you can always find me on Snapchat,
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And I actually do respond back when you snap me or send me a message on Instagram.