Conversing is one of my favorite things to do, so our latest class was one of particular interest to me. We talked about some of the do’s and do not’s of conversation starters.
Often times, many of us start conversations with questions like “What do you do?” This type of question is not a good conversation starter for two reasons. The first reason is that you run the risk of giving people the impression that you are defining them by what they do. Even if this is not your intention, this type of question makes it seem that way. The second reason that you should not start a conversation in this manner is because it makes the receiver of this question tense and uneasy. The receiver feels like they have to live up to the expectations that you require them to meet through asking a question like this. As the conversation starter, you may just be trying to figure out more about them, or maybe you just want to find something you have in common that you might be able to expand your conversation upon. This causes you to unknowingly start to turn them away from you.
As conversation starters, we need to be able to set our customers at ease. We can do this by asking more open ended questions. This gives the customer a chance to answer in a manner that they feel comfortable. You are not asking a question that creates a pressure to live up to an expectation. Instead, you are asking a question that shows no sign of expectation. It is simply a question that can be answered easily and at the same time can provide you (the salesperson) the ability to get to know your customer better. A good example of this would be to ask a question like, “Where are you from?” This shows that you want to get to know your customer better, while at the same time not putting them on the spot to answer a question they are not comfortable with. Not only that, but this type of question has the ability to create new question that can build off of the initial question.
Being able to converse effectively is key to the sales position, and it all starts with the way you start the conversation.
BoweryJE22
Great post. I agree with the idea that asking someone blatantly “what do you do” can offend and make them feel uneasy. And I think because that could, on occasion, be a simple question with a complex answer. You don’t want to be judged as a person based on your answer which is why a lot of people don’t like it.