Should I ask open ended or close ended questions in sales?
There are sales trainers and gurus out there who will tell you to NEVER ask a close ended question – at UpYourTeleSales.com we think that is CRAZY.
When you have conversations with your friends – family – coworkers, outside of a sales conversation we use a combination of open ended, close ended, and short answer questions.
“Hey, want to go out Friday night?” is something most of us have asked – did it end the conversation at YES or NO?
Of course it didn’t because there was a follow up question after it, regardless of the other person’s answer.
If they say YES – “great, I was thinking about…insert your idea here (movie, drinks, show, hanging out, etc) what are you thinking would be fun?”
If they say NO (and you really wanted to do something with them) – “that’s too bad, I was thinking about…insert your idea here (movie, drinks, show, hanging out, etc) with you, when could we do that together?”
If they say NO (and you’re going to do it anyway) – “that’s too bad, I was thinking about…insert your idea here (movie, drinks, show, hanging out, etc) we will miss having you with us. What do you have going on?”
The same is true in sales, it doesn’t matter if your question is close ended (yes or no) or short answer (one word will do) – you merely need to have a well crafted open ended follow up question to ask REGARDLESS of their answer.
pssst – did you notice that it was ALMOST the same question in each of our three scenarios? Make it easy on yourself!
Effective Communication – it’s your responsibility.
To boost your communication effectiveness, download the UpYourTeleSales.com 11 Communication Effectiveness Tips https://upyourtelesales.com/tips
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