THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONING TECHNIQUE
One of the biggest benefits of my recruiting business – to me, at least – is that it keeps me sharp on my listening skills. You have to be a good listener when you’re hiring salespeople for one big reason – salespeople will usually tell you how they will fail (or what excuses they will use when they do fail); the key is to listen and hear those reasons. This happens in nearly every interpersonal dialogue between people. People will tell you how things will go wrong, if you’re tuned in.
The problem isn’t that people don’t say things, it’s that we don’t listen – or that we mentally change what they DO say into what WE WANT them to say. For instance, the salesperson who says, “I really don’t like prospecting, but I’m willing to do it,” is really telling you, “If you need me to prospect, we’re both going to be very disappointed.” Too often, however, the hiring manager likes this person and mentally changes, “I don’t like to prospect,” into, “I’ll prospect if you really need me to.” Do you see how far fantasy and reality separate? Good listeners know that words mean things, and that it’s important to derive the real meaning. Let’s talk about a technique to get what you really need out of the conversation if you’re unsure.
Recently, I was interviewing a salesperson for a different position and he said to me, “I’m a little concerned about the size of the territory – I don’t know that it’s big enough.” Now, this was a salesperson that was changing industries, so he wouldn’t know the potential of the territory. Yet he was already complaining about it. Upon further questioning, I found out why he was leaving his current job – you got it, the size of the territory. Same with the one before that. So it was reasonable to assume that, should he fail on my job, that would be the excuse again. Candidate eliminated.
The problem is that too many people settle for the face value of what’s being said, instead of making sure they know what the facts are. It doesn’t have to be that way; one of the best questioning techniques out there is called “Drilling Down.” Essentially, it means following a line of questioning until you know what is really meant, and then making your decisions from there. This works for selling, for interviewing, and sometimes even for dealing with your spouse (until she catches on and says, “Don’t use that sales stuff on me!” – but I digress).
Drilling down is simple. There are no fancy questions involved – just questions like these:
“Can you tell me more about that?”
“Why do you feel that way?”
“Why is that important to you?”
“Can you elaborate?”
“Would you define that, please?”
“Why?” (or) “Why not?”
Ultimately, the point of drilling down is to eliminate ambiguity in the conversation. Ambiguity or vagueness are our enemies in selling or hiring; in selling, we want a complete understanding of the customer’s needs and situation. In hiring, we want a complete picture of our candidate. Why doesn’t everyone do this? There are a few reasons:
- They don’t know how. You no longer have this reason available if you’ve read this far!
- They don’t feel like making the effort.
- They’re afraid. Fear, of course, is the #1 obstacle of good things in selling. Sometimes, drill-down questions probe in areas that are intentionally left vague and some people are uncomfortable asking for more detail. Just know this – most of the time, those unstated details can cost you money. That alone should make it worth asking.
- They don’t want to hear the answers. This happens most often in interviews, when the interviewer is worried that whatever the unstated detail is, it disqualifies the applicant for their job. This is all the more reason to ask; just because it isn’t stated doesn’t mean that the detail doesn’t exist. Take the example of our “Don’t like to prospect” guy above. If he won’t prospect, and you’re hiring for a prospecting job, why wouldn’t you want to know now (while it’s still free) that this is the wrong person for you?
In 2005, drilling down made the difference between winning a nice piece of business and walking away empty-handed for me. I was meeting with the owner of a printing company, and the conversation went like this:
Me: “How have you trained salespeople in the past?”
Him: “Well, for years, we sent our new salespeople out with our existing people to learn the ropes. That worked okay. Then, three years ago, we brought in an outside sales trainer, but he was expensive and didn’t deliver results. So, now we’re back to doing it the old way.”
Hmmm…I’m an outside sales trainer. I can be expensive. Based on that answer, my chances of winning the business are slim to none – and Slim just left the room. However, I knew how to drill down.
Me: “Why do you think the past sales trainer didn’t deliver results?” (Note that I didn’t ask why he was expensive.)
Him: “Well, he just came in with a canned program, and he didn’t take any time to learn our business. So, he wasn’t speaking our language and didn’t relate to our people.”
Now I have something to work with, don’t I?
Me: “Well, what if I spent some time with you and your people learning the business? I might even go out on a sales call or two? You’d pay for my time to do it, of course, but we could have a really impactful and targeted program. Would that be of interest?”
Fifteen minutes later, I left with a training engagement and a check. I had that client for three years, until he sold out to a national company (due to growth). The difference was one question that started with the word, “Why.”
Good salespeople know enough to get the details of the conversation. So do good interviewers and hiring managers. That’s the difference between “average” and “good” or “great.”
