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detailed understanding of how the mind works as we make the decision to
accept another’s reasoning combined with practical and proven tools to
enable the influencing of the behaviour in others. In a phrase they have
developed and tested state of the art, professional and ethical “sales” tech-
niques that should be in the “personal toolkit” of every manager, executive
or salesperson.

Using questions intelligently

Effective salespeople constantly analyze and assess their work. They
assure me that if they find that they have talked more than say, 40 per cent
of the time, they have failed whether they made the sale or not. If they
believe in the central importance of the “customer” whether that customer
is buying an idea, a service or a product they need to ask questions that are
brief and to the point and listen to the answers. This means that the cus-
tomer must do the bulk of the talking. The salesperson that demonstrates
the mere gift of the gab is a salesperson in trouble.

I need to build just a little on the very brief notes on questioning skills
that were in the introduction to this book. Effective questioning is essen-
tial to you as a manager or executive if you want to have your ideas
accepted and implemented, just as it is the crucial tool of the salesperson.
To maximize the flow of conversation you must:

Use open questions

These cannot be answered by a “yes” or a “no” and cause the other person
to express their feelings or opinion:

n How do you feel about the state of the economy at present?
n What did you think of the Mansion House speech last night?
n What did you think of the prospects for economic growth?
n How do you feel about the behaviour of customers these days?
n What are the most significant values that you, as a businessperson,

hold?
n What are the issues your industry faces at the moment?
n What would be your ideal solution to the problems that you

confront?
n If you could change one important thing about business today

what would it be?
– Why is it important to you to change that?
n What is the effect of the accelerating business and economic cycle
on your business strategy?
n What keeps you awake at night?

180 Key management questions