Let me flip the script on you here. I want you to stop thinking about questions when it comes to selling. I don’t want you thinking about what you want to ask your prospects or customers. Try and abandon the notion of asking questions for just a little bit.

Now that you’re not thinking about what questions you’d like to ask prospects and buyers, what are you focusing on? Are you thinking about what you’d want to tell them?  Or are you thinking about what you want to know?

Let that sit in for a second.

If you’re not thinking about asking questions, what are you thinking about? Are you thinking about what to say to them or are you thinking about the information you want to know that you won’t be able to get?

If you’re thinking about what you’d say, good thing you’re reading this. That’s the wrong answer. If, however, you’re asking yourself, how am I going to get the information I need, good on  you. That’s what you should be thinking.

Let me break it down this way. Questions are great and I’m gonna let you get back to questions in just a bit, but what’s better than knowing what questions to ask is understanding what information you’re looking for.

In spite of how wide-open and complex sales can seem. When it comes to engaging with our clients or prospects, it’s rather simple. Our product or service can only do so much. Therefore there is only so much information that is relevant to us. Therefore, we can know what’s important to know before we take a call.

Looking at the sale this way adds a new dimension, where rather than trying to find the right questions, we should focus on looking for the right information.

Do you know what type of information you want to get out of a prospect on the first call, the second call, in the discovery call, during the demo, during the negotiation, during the evaluation stage etc? Do you know specifically what you want to know before you call your prospects or customers? Do you know what type of information you need to make the sale?  It’s critical you do.

Rather than going into your next call with a set of “questions” consider going in with a list of the information you want to get from the prospect. Write down the types of information and data you to get about them, their business, their goals, their processes, their current environment etc. Rather than think about the questions, focus on the information.

Questions are finite. When we focus on the questions, we run the risk of not getting all the information we want. However, when we focus on the information, we keep digging until we get the information.

The next time you are preparing for a sales call, don’t focus on the questions you want to ask, consider focusing on the information you want to know.  Once you know what you’re looking for, the questions will roll off your tongue until you get what you want.

It’s not about what you ask; it’s about what you learn.