Why Questions Are an Effective Selling Tool

If you either own or work in a business, you are concerned with content marketing and content. You do so much with your content. You entice people and you get them to think in a new way. You excite them and you educate them. You also provoke them in a very positive way. You ask thought-provoking questions.

Asking questions goes a long way to promoting exciting discussions

Questions can either be incorporated into your content or they can be put into the discussion at the end of your posts. Both places can work well. It all depends on the people who decide to get involved with the discussion. If they are creative, passionate, and insightful, the discussion (which will launch from the question) will be lively and invaluable. 

Not only do questions work well but they also satisfy the needs of your prospects and clients.

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In many ways, questions are the lifeblood of your content. Of course, if you are going to be the person to answer the questions, you need to make sure that your answers are transparent and genuine. Otherwise, you won’t be satisfying anyone’s needs.

When it comes to exchanging (sharing) information with other people, everyone (you included) should go ahead and do that as freely as possible. Don’t ever think that it is pointless to say whatever you feel you want to say because someone else has said it before you. The fact is that each person has a unique way of presenting the information. Your angle is bound to be different from the next person’s angle and you really have no way of knowing how your information is going to be received.

As far as the success of your business is concerned, the last thing that you want to do is to allow someone else to do what you should be doing. In other words, you want to write your own content and ask/answer questions yourself.

Which types of questions are going to come up?

There are several different types of questions that will probably come up. You will be able to see patterns. Some of those questions are:

• Concerning the cost of products and/or services.
• Regarding issues that are being experienced.
• Regarding the comparison of one product with another or several products.
• Regarding what is working well compared with what is not working well.
• Regarding reviews of products and/or services.

Ironically, although these are exactly the types of questions that come up, they are also the types of questions that many businesses are hesitant to embrace. With technology being as advanced as it is, many people like to find the answers on their own, if at all possible. Unfortunately, if those businesses continue to stick to that philosophy, they will most likely inevitably lose customers eventually.

From the perspective of the clients (and prospective clients), if the business doesn’t want to answer those questions, that client may feel that the business has something to hide. That is certainly not the perception that the business would want to create. The relationship between the client and the business must be built on trust or it won’t flourish. 

Back to the business’ perspective

Again, from the perspective of the business, there are some common reasons why they don’t like to answer certain questions and discuss certain issues (particularly cost and pricing):

• Customized pricing:  Numerous businesses don’t go with a set fee structure. They charge according to the job and according to the needs of the client. 

• Competitors will find out: The last thing that a business wants is to reveal their pricing to the competition. If that happens, of course, the competition can undercut them and take the business away. The truth is that they probably have a decent idea about the other business’ pricing but they may not know exactly.

• The business’ prices are higher than other business’ prices: If the clients discover this, they may get scared and not go with that business. However, in the interest of transparency, the business should still reveal the prices and hope that their honesty pays off. It usually will because, after all, you really do get what you pay for.

Conclusion

Questions are an excellent tool for your business. They can really get people to think and the discussions that occur as a result can really yield some amazing fruit. You will want to put some thought into your questions so that they have the greatest impact and promote the most lively, valuable discussions possible. However, it is a good idea to ask simple questions that have power behind them. Remember, It is important to ask questions because questions mean curiosity. Curiosity is what makes you grow as a person and as a business owner.

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