(illustration courtesy of Grok)
Could the ability to ask good questions impact your success with selling? I think the answer to that must, most definitely, be a resounding YES!
As I think back on a lot of what we have learned in class this semester as well as read in our textbooks, there seems to be a theme of asking questions. To have empathy, we need to ask questions to be better able to understand where people are and what type of pain they are having. To build trust, we must ask questions to get to know people better. To become outward-focused and others-focused, we must ask questions.
When Coach was in class, he went through a funnel, and much of the information that is gained in the funnel is through asking good questions. A pre-call analysis is done by researching to answer questions you may have about a client. A need analysis is done by asking more questions directly of the client. Need awareness is asking probing questions. By doing this we can discover pain, or maybe even help a potential client discover where their pain really lies. Before we can offer a solution, we go through a real process of questioning and getting to know the client, knowing their business, gaining empathy and seeing things from their perspective, so we can then be in a better place to offer a solution to eliminate the pain they are dealing with.
The internet has leveled the playing field quite a bit between buyer and seller. However, while the internet has done wonderful things, it has also often eliminated personal relationships. With this in mind, how much better salespeople can now be as compared to a buyer just clicking through a website to make a purchase. They can add an honest and personal connection that is really lacking in today’s world by asking questions, being both sympathetic, and empathetic and helping people eliminate pain.
Maybe if we spent more time asking questions, and getting to know people better now, it will make us much better at selling later!
SchrieberBE23 
FrenchJA21 
andersonsa22
Great post! I totally agree that asking the right questions is so important for so many different reasons. I also agree that the internet makes a salesperson relationship of the job so much more important.
Very nice post, selling in the modern time is absolutely more about understanding the customers pain than anything else, and asking questions is easily the best way to do this.
I also love how the focus of the class has been on the customer and not the seller. It is a common misconception that sales is all about the seller or all about the product, when that is totally wrong!