“You can tell a man is clever by his answers. You can tell a man is wise by his questions.”

Naguib Mahfouz (1911 – )
Egyptian novelist, Nobel Prize Laureate

Customer Questions

A nice list of questions serves several purposes.

Let’s say you’re warming up with your potential customer and he’s the type who’s rushing you into getting started:

“I don’t have all day,” he barks at you, as you’re asking him about his fascinating bowling trophies. “Let’s get on with it!”

“No problem, sir.” And you whip out your prepared list of CUSTOMER QUESTIONS. Now, as far as he’s concerned, you’ve started, however you’re still warming up.

Another reason the questions are important is that it makes the customer realize early on that WE CARE ABOUT THEM.

Having a printed, prepared set of questions can really help in many ways. It’s very professional and easily gives your customer the impression that you’ve gotten down to business. Questions such as:

How old is your home?

How long have you lived here?

What improvements have you already made?

How long have you been considering this project?

What would you like to accomplish with this project?

Is there anything you’d like to change about your home?

What has kept you from doing it so far?

What’s important to you about a company?

What’s important to you about a product?

How soon will you be deciding on this project?

Have you a budget set aside or will you be interested in financing?

Is there anything I haven’t asked you that I need to know in order to do my very best job solving your problems?

The last question is in bold. It lets the customer know that we’re interested in what’s important to them! Ask it sincerely. The other question in bold is your most useful question. Most potential customers will sincerely tell you that they’ve been thinking about the project for some time. At the very end of your presentation, if your customer tells you that he wants to “think about it?” Look him in the eye and ask, “Bob, you’ve been thinking about this for five years now, don’t you think it’s time you acted?”