The Importance And Role Of Good Questioning Techniques

Questions are a key part of effective communication skills. Particularly in business your ability to carry out your role effectively is in large part influenced by your questioning skills.  We are all naturally born to be very inquisitive. If you have children and think back to a time when they were young, you will know what I mean ! Frequently very small children ask questions naturally and persistently. It's their way of learning. After all how can they increase their knowledge about how the world works without questioning ?  However over time we get taught to drop this habit. Parents will normally say things like "stop being so nosey," or "stop asking so many questions."

In our training module on questioning skills, we work on ;

• What different types of questions there are
• How to know when to use them
• How to structure a good business conversation around effective questioning techniques

This is based around the use of open & closed questions. Good questioning skills are fundamental to many jobs, in order to find out the correct information quickly, and to identify where you can take the conversation. On the phone, whether you are selling, appointment setting, working on a technical help desk or dealing with customer queries and complaints, developing good questioning skills will pay big dividends.

What is the difference between open and closed questions ?

Closed questions will get you a one word answer, either ; Yes or No, (or at least they are intended to.) Open questions encourage a fuller answer." Is that your coat on the back of the chair ?" is a closed question. So is "Have you ever been to France ?"

Open questions by contrast encourage the other person to give you more information. By limiting their opportunities to give you a straight ‘Yes' or ‘No' you are encouraging them to open up and give you a quantity of information.

There are only 7 words to remember to ensure you use open questions which are ;

Who, What, When, Where, How, Why, Which  

You will have noticed they all start with ‘W' (well, all except ‘How' which ends with a ‘w'). These types of questions are good to use if either you're dealing with people who are not very communicative, or alternatively you have key information to find out from them.

What are the main benefits of using open questions ? Why will it help you ?

• You gain more information.
• It encourages people to 'open up' to give information.
• It is more involving for the other person, they will feel more ‘engaged' in the communication process
• It displays interest
• They are conversation builders
• You produce more of a two-way conversation, which both parties will feel more comfortable with. This is one of the RAPPORT building skills

Then just to confuse the issue a little : apart from open and closed questions we have camouflage questions. These are always, always open questions. But the reason I call them camouflage questions is because they behave, and feel more like closed questions. So it is important to understand that even when you're using open questions, if they are camouflage type of open questions they will not necessarily get the other person to open up as freely as if they are ‘expansive' open questions.

An example of a camouflage type of open question is "When is your birthday ?" O.K. so it doesn't require a Yes or No answer, but nevertheless (unless you are the Queen), there can only be one answer to this question. Consequently, you need to ensure that you use good ‘expansive' open questions if you are looking to get information out of somebody. Any situation where you ask people about their thoughts and feelings, will normally involve good expansive open questions.

Why are closed questions useful ?

Closed questions are also useful in their own place. They are necessary at the end of a piece of communication to ensure clarity. They are also good if you are unclear about the information you are receiving. If somebody has a tendency to waffle or ramble, you may need closed questions to get clear on the key points of the message.

Some of the particular situations where closed questions will help you are ;         

•  To get specific information
•  To get commitment
•  To seek clarification or reassurance
•  To gain confirmation/affirmation
•  It can speed the process up
•  To round off a conversation
•  To narrow down options

So, closed questions are good in their place. Some of the key words used in closed questions are ;

            Do, Does, Did, Is, Are, Shall, Have, Has, Had, Could, Would, Should

The TED principle

This is a very useful tool to help you soften your questioning. I might write about it in a future article - it depends if there's a call for it ......