“When you ask the question that provokes thought, you’re going to get so much more information, and you no longer need to hope. You can see fit established. You can see fit revealed.” – Mike Simmons & Jacquelyn Nicholson in today’s Tip 1780
What’s your thought about this?
Join the conversation below and go check out the links!
Mike Simmons on LinkedIn
Jacquelyn Nicholson on LinkedIn
Sales Success Society
2024 Sales Success Summit
Submit a Sales Tip
Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]
Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip features both Jacquelyn Nicholson and Mike Simmons in another of their joint tips. Here they are:
Jacquelyn Nicholson: Mike, you are the great questioner. Tell me how you think about the kinds of questions you want to ask people and why you ask them.
Mike Simmons: So I was fortunate enough when I was in high school to write for the school newspaper. And so you start to learn this whole piece around journalism. And I did the yearbook stuff and all of that. And a lot of people will talk about the five W’s and H. So who, what, where, when, why, and how. And if you know those things, then you can work through pieces of information. You can I learned to gather all of the different components of the story. In the past, I’ve screwed up at this, where I would ask overly complicated questions to just ramble on. More recently, I’ve gotten more comfortable simplifying and just really keeping things around what, how, when. I’m careful about why. And the reason I’m careful about why is why is one of those things that can get people really defensive. Why did you say that? Why do you like that? Why did you say that?
Jacquelyn Nicholson: I never thought about that, but that makes perfect sense. Oh my God.
Mike Simmons: So think about it. And I might want to ask those why questions because I’m trying to help and really trying to understand and all of those things. But what’s the perception of the other person on the other end? So for me, it’s about getting back to the basics, who, what, why, where, when, how, and choosing the right structure of the question for the intended purpose. If I need to get to a point where I want someone to either be defensive or make a decision or make them stop in their tracks, then I can ask the why question. It’s very dangerous. With great power comes great responsibility. The Ben Parker quote. You’ve got to use these things effectively.
Jacquelyn Nicholson: I think Solomon might have come from before Ben Parker, but-
Mike Simmons: Okay, so tell me what the quote is. It aligns with it.
Jacquelyn Nicholson: It’s just more from… It’s not even that. It’s a proverb, so it’s not Solomon, but it’s to who much is given, much is required. So it’s an old, old statement.
Mike Simmons: This is the one thing, one of the things I love about talking with Jacquelyn about this stuff, because one of my favorite quotes is the Marie Antoinette quote, which is, There’s nothing new except what has been forgotten. What is the biblical quote?
Jacquelyn Nicholson: Oh, yes. There is nothing new under the Sun. The entire Book of Ecclesiastes, which was written by Solomon, is all about that topic. And it’s actually a fascinating read. If you ever want to read it, it’s a good one.
Mike Simmons: And we can go through this. We can start to ask these questions around like, Hey, who has done this before? Where can we learn from those? How have they gone through and solved those things? And if you ask those questions before jumping right into your own preconceived notions around a solution, you’ll actually be surprised about what you can learn and where you can innovate. What is it that you like about the types of questions I ask?
Jacquelyn Nicholson: They’re just to me, they’re always like, Holy smokes, I never would have asked a question in that moment. And I love it because I don’t think of asking them in the moments when I should. And I actually am a genuinely very curious person. And so after becoming your friend and knowing you these past few years, I now ask more questions. And I’ve been complimented on the questions that I ask. And I think that’s a cool thing. And I think I have you to thank for that because it just wasn’t something that was in my repertoire. My repertoire, as my son would used to say about me he would joke about, was, You know what your problem is, mom? You always need to be right. And I was like, Yeah, but I am. I know that I’m not now, but it stemmed from something where I have a nearly a photographic memory, and that will be important in a moment. But if I tell you like, Oh, no, I’m sure of this, my husband would tell you, Don’t bet against her. She’s telling you she’s sure for a reason. But no, I think to wrap up the topic of questions, I think it’s one of a salesperson’s best tools, right? Showing that you’re genuinely curious about the business problem that this prospect or customer is trying to solve. You only get to that place by asking great questions, and you have to plan for it. Great questions don’t just come out of thin air. You have to think about them. You’ve taught me in different meetings and processes all about the right kinds of questions to ask and what you love about it when people ask you great questions that show they’re genuinely curious, that they really care, that they are trying to understand so that they can be helpful. And you show interest and you show that you value someone by asking them truly great questions. And I think it’s the hallmark of some of the best minds that they have the right answers, but the experts ask the great questions.
Mike Simmons: When you go through that piece, yes, curiosity is important. There’s this natural curiosity. The mistake we tend to make is we ask the question and then we assume understanding rather than asking the next question to validate understanding. And there’s a lot of nuance there. Be careful about assuming an understanding. Validate your understanding with the next question. Based on people’s nonverbal, you will get a sense for their comfort level in answering that type of question. And if they’re not comfortable with the validation, then the next time, don’t worry about validating. Just move things forward. But you’re constantly looking for feedback and signals as you ask these questions. There are two questions that I usually get amazing feedback on. And the first time that anybody has heard of these questions, and I ask these questions all the time. If someone is in a hot seat environment I mean, you saw this when we were at the golf in sales, that if someone is in a hot seat environment, toward the end, I might say something like, what did you expect to hear that you didn’t hear?
Jacquelyn Nicholson: I love that one.
Mike Simmons: And that usually gets that same feedback. And I can ask that in an environment where people are looking for feedback, and they’re looking for coaching, and they’re looking for experience, and they’re looking for stuff in a mastermind environment. The other question that I get that same response for is, what’s the question that you thought I was going to ask or expected me to ask that I didn’t ask? And in a discovery call, that question is freaking golden because now I can get, well, why is it golden?
Jacquelyn Nicholson: Well, I asked it yesterday in a meeting, and the guy I was like, Oh, that’s awesome. I love that.
Mike Simmons: This stuff works. It works because what ends up happening is you get people to think a little bit differently about what they’re sharing and how they’re engaging and what their perspective is. And you get a sense for it rather than me trying to tell you what you should be thinking or what you should have heard or any of those other things. So by asking the question, I get more of that engaging and that lean in type thing. Now, the other thing you notice when I asked Jacquelyn about her response just there. I used why. The reason I asked why is because now I know I’m going to get a direct response. There’s not going to be a lot of other stuff that’s going to be there. And I’m looking for something specific, and we’re closing things out because these are short sales steps. But simplify your questions. How do we create complexity? We add. So the way that we simplify is we reduce. When you’re thinking about your questions, think about how can I reduce this into fewer words. Think about how I can use the same question over and over again because the feedback, the answer is going to be different depending on who you’re talking to. When you’re talking off of a script, you’re sharing the same information over and over and over again, and you’re hoping that you’re going to land with someone. When you ask the question that provokes thought, you’re going to get so much more information, and you no longer need to hope. You can see fit established. You can see fit revealed.
Jacquelyn Nicholson: Love it. Awesome.
Scott Ingram: For links to connect with both Jacquelyn and Mike, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1780. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!