One consultant shared that he makes a great six figure income by simply asking four questions:
1. What’s going well?
2. What’s not?
3. Where are you stuck?
4. What needs to change?
When this consultant is meeting with an individual or a team, he spends the first half of his time on question #1 “What’s going well?”
He also uses a few follow-up questions–like:
How effective do you think this consultant would be if he began with question #2?
All the time spent on question #1 creates a safe encouraging environment for the individual or team to be ready to engage questions #2, #3 and #4!”
Might your tendency be to start with question #2, “What’s not going well?”
How will starting with question #1, “What’s going well?” increase your effectiveness?
Do you have to be a “subject matter expert” to ask these four questions?
Or could you help a brain surgeon one day, a rocket scientist the next day and the president of a computer software company the day thereafter?
Who really provides the “meat” of conversation? They do! You simply ask the four questions with a listening ear!
Who could you help with these four Questions?
So when are you going to launch your consulting business?
So what do you think?
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This is a great post! This helps in the world of sales as well. The more you can hear your customer, where they are having issues, and what you can do to help, that is an invaluable place to start. Definitely NOT, “So here is why my product/ service is great!”
Love it! It’s actually very easy IF WE MAKE TIME!! Truth is, we all waste a ton of time churning on the urgent things that keep us from investing time on the few strategic things that will most benefit the future we hope to influence. Thanks Bob for a simple way to reflect! Wahoo!!
Great resource for parents of teens, mentors, anyone who comes in contact with people on any sort of regular basis….everyone wants someone to really “hear” them! These questions lay the groundwork for that to happen. Thanks, Bob! One of my favorite follow-ups? “What was your favorite part of that?”
Great blog, love it, keep up the good work! 🙂
– How did you do it?
– Have you managed to write nearly a whole blog just with questions?
– Am i completely in awe?
– Does it encourage me to continue using more questions?
…oh I give up; I’m just not as good at it as you, Bob. Thanks for the post. Genius stuff as ever.
Good Morning and Thanks to Matt, Tom, Melissa, Gary and Paul for your excellent comments and great questions! Matt you are 100% correct–the key to sales is to ask questions!
Great post, Bob. Look forward to additional posts.