Rating: Average
The Question Code blurb excerpt: Whether you’re the leader of a business, an ambitious employee, or somewhere in between, knowing how to ask the right questions is essential to building your understanding of the people around you, and getting them to respond to you in the way you intend.
In this book, you’ll learn how to ask the right questions, in the right way; in order to:
truly get people to hear you;
lead others to understand your point of view and
influence them to respond in ways that help you both.
My opinion: This is a short book addressing the valuable skill of asking great questions. An area that deeply interests me. I have done a lot of research into questioning and evidently, Andrew knows his stuff. However, I found the book very vague. I think more of the books content could have focused providing examples of effective funnels or demonstrating when open vs closed questioning was the best option. In particular, showing how each would change the future of each conversation. Overall this is an average read, but would be a good place to start for you professionals or those with little experience in asking questions.
Lessons from The Question Code:
Asking questions is a powerful way to make someone think and an effective way to ensure that they're thinking about the subject you'd like them to focus on. The surest way to get someone thinking about a particular subject is to ask them a question about it.
Most people are interested in themselves and like being heard. Asking questions invites them to share and be heard.
An effective question is one that helps you achieve the desired outcome.
In most cases, open-ended questions will result in more thought than closed questions. Open questions usually being with; Why, What, How or something like tell me about.
Use open questions first, as the conversation progresses you may then start to use slightly less open, more directive questions, to dig deeper into a particular topic.
Embrace silence and don't interrupt it. If you ask great questions they will require time to be processed before you get a response.
4 questions to ask yourself when planning your questions;
Do you want to influence this person?
If yes, how do you want to influence them? That is, what is it you want them to do?
To make that change, what will they need to think? What, specifically, will they need to realise or understand?
What seriues of questions will help them reach that realisation or understanding the quickest?
4 questions you could ask someone struggling to hit their target:
So, tell me what you've been most focused on improving in your work processes?
How's that been going?
If that isn't working, what else could you be trying?
If you're not able to hit your targets next month, what other alternatives should we consider?
4 examples of goal-orientated questions;
Where are you looking to get with this?
What will success look like?
What would the ideal outcome look like here?
What's your ultimate goal with this?
Example Questions:
Providing feedback to a staff member who you believe is reluctant to adapt a newly implemented process:
How have you been going with the new process?
Which aspects have you found most comfortable?
Which ones are you struggling with?
Can you tell me how you've been approaching those?
What have you been doing to improve?
What impact will it have on the business if you don't adopt this new process? What impact do you think that will have on you?
What would success look like here?
How are you going to approach this moving forward?
What support do you need to access in order to utilise this process better?
How will you being this process? What's the first action you need to take?
When do you intend to start that?
Providing general performance feedback to a team member:
Can you talk me through how you've been approaching this activity?
What results has that been getting?
What will be the impact of continuing to do it that way?
How will you go about it in the future?
Selling high-value solutions/products to a B2B prospect:
How's business?
What's most important to you?
What's frustrating about ...?
What does it look like if it continues like that for a year or two more?
How would you improve...?
What will that mean to the business and you, personally?
How are you taking advantage of the.... opportunity?
What would an ideal outcome look like?
What impact would that have on the broader business?
If you achieve these goals, what would that be worth to the business?
How does your organisation go about making these decisions? Who else is involved?
Creative thinking to innovate your product or service?
What are five possible solutions to this problem?
What is the most outlandish solution to this problem?
Why do we do it that way?
What is the ideal? What would the perfect version of this look like?
What could we combine this with?
Where will this trend be in 10 years?
What unrelated innovations can we learn from?
What would we do with double the budget?
Coaching:
How important is that?
What are three alternative approaches?
What is the possible impact of each?
On a scale of 1 - 10, how motivated are you to achieve this?
What can you do immediately to start down that path?
Negotiation:
From your perspective, what are the most significant challenges/hurdles?
Where/how can I assist you further?
What's the underlying issue?
Rank your most essential requirements in priority order.
On a scale of 1 - 10, how committed are you to each of them?
How do you measure the value of each of them?
Dig deeper:
Tell me a little more about it?
Why is that?
Please expand on that for me.
How will you do...?
What are the biggest assumptions that... relies on?
What specific evidence is there that supports...?
The Question Code Best Quotes:
“The skill or habit of asking questions is among the most valuable skills in business and is certainly one of the most effective ways of influencing people"
"Behind the skill of asking questions lies the habit of thinking in questions"
"Often the most difficult questions are the most effective"
"The prospect drinks their coffee cold. The salesman drinks it hot" - Talk less, listen more.
"Great questioners value their time so highly that they move slowly"
What Next:
If you are interested in this book, you may want to check out our list of reviewed Sales Books.
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