How to Ask the Right Questions

As told at sales training courses, selling is not about telling, it is about asking the right questions at the right time in the right manner to discover what the real needs are and then solving those needs. Therefore, before you can start to sell, you require data about your possible client, about their requirements (e.g. about the present structure in their company, possible difficulties etc.) and requirements (motives and attitudes, personal objectives and opportunities).

You can only adapt your sales presentation effectively after you have obtained this information.

To get this information you need to ask targeted questions, i.e. ask your prospect tailored questions. Consider the following when preparing for your meeting:

At what level is your prospect in the corporate hierarchy? What does their job involve? What are they interested in? What do they want to know? What will they decide? On the basis of which criteria? What do they alone know? From whom can you get the answers your prospect does not want to or is unable to give you? Which questions enhance their status? Which questions prove your competence to the prospect? What corporate objectives are they following? What personal needs, hopes and expectations are they pursuing?

When you have obtained a profile of your client, put together questions you want to ask them personally. The example questions for analysis of requirements set out below need to be completed with information specific to each individual case.

If you are presenting to the Managing Director or Chairman, then think about these questions requirement questions:

How does the company see itself? What is the company mission statement, corporate philosophy, corporate model? What corporate objectives are you pursuing, in particular medium and long term objectives? What characterises the corporate policy? What strategies are you using to achieve your goals? What visions are you led by (striving towards)? What particular strengths characterise your company? What are your weaknesses? What improvements should be made? What are your organisational and management guidelines? What Management Information System do you use? How current and qualified is the data? What investment plans / planned projects do you have? How is the company developing? What indices best express the company's current position? What plans are you following? How does your market position / positioning look? How are other areas of business developing (trends)? What strengths, strategies, weaknesses characterise your competitors? Are there any dependencies on suppliers, customers, business partners? How is co-operation within the management? How are relations with the staff? What available corporate analyses and external advisers could offer important inputs? What are your advertising slogans? What is your marketing concept?

If you are presenting to the Departmental Managers, think about asking these questions:

What should the project / system achieve / be capable of? How much are you helping with the project? What personal objectives are you pursuing in doing so? What does it most depend on? Who makes the decisions? How many external consultants are you and your staff working with? What experience do users have of data processing? What sales training and qualifications do they have? What are your main service requirements? How has the department been working so far? What organisational structures do you have? How many users are affected, and from when? How are they to be trained? What will the introduction of the system mean for the users? To what extent does this investment decision require the approval of others? What does the chairman think of it? What is the best way of winning management over to your objectives and plans?

If you are presenting to the Purchasing Manager then these questions are useful:

What demands are departments / users making of you? What demands are management making of you? How large is the budget for the project? In what year / business year should you be invoiced? What contractual requirements must we meet? Payment conditions? Guarantees, securities? Insurance conditions? Do you wish to have a contract? Do you wish to have a company license, network license, database license? According to which criteria will your work be evaluated? What personal objectives do you have? What expectations do you have? How can I best help you to get approval for the required budget?

Learning how to formulate questions and then respond appropriately to the responses you get is a key part of all good sales training programmes.


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Richard Stone is a Director for Spearhead Training Limited that runs management and sales training courses that improve business performance.