The Truth Behind Open-Ended Questions!
Questions! Questions! Questions!
We ask many every day and receive many, but have we ever wondered about the science behind the questions?
We can categorize questions into Open-Ended Questions and Closed-Ended Questions. Open-Ended Questions trigger your counterpart to think and provide a free flow response while Closed-Ended Questions trigger a shorter response in the form of “Yes/No”
The ultimate purpose of any question is to get your counterpart to think and provide you with valuable information that helps you to understand their situation and engage better in the conversation. Open-Ended Question helps you to achieve this desired outcome.
Benefits of an Open-Ended Questions:
- Buys you valuable time until your counterpart thinks and responds.
- Helps you to gain valuable information by triggering your counterpart to elaborate.
Words which trigger a Closed-Ended Question
- IS
Is there a better product than this in the market? — Yes/No
- ARE
Are you available for a call today? — Yes/No
- DO
Do you have any preferences to the service you are looking for? — Yes/No
Words which trigger an Open-Ended Question
- WHAT
What are you hoping to achieve because of this decision? — I hope to get a better…….
- HOW
How am I supposed to that? — You can contact the bank and…..
Avoid WHY as much as possible.
Questions that begin with WHY comes across as accusatory. It’s recommended to avoid to ask an Open-Ended Question beginning with WHY unless you are confident of getting the desired outcomes even after an accusatory question.
Why did you not follow the process which I covered yesterday?
Asking Open-Ended Questions leads you to persuade and tilt the direction of the conversation towards you. Understand your counterpart, prepare a list of Open-Ended Questions, and dominate the conversation!
