Tips For Asking Great Questions

I love giving people advice. I really do. I love offering practical advice. I love offering helpful advice. I love offering insightful advice. In fact, I offer so much advice it can get me into trouble.

That almost always happens when I offer unsolicited advice. You know the kind. It’s when you’re telling someone about a situation and the other person jumps in with the answer to all your problems. But you didn’t want that!

You know why? People don’t always want the answers. Sometimes they just want to share what’s going on with you. 

It’s hard to shut up and listen

At least it is for me. And I’m guessing many of you out there go through the same thing. And if you’re good at listening, congratulations, you’re one step closer to booking your next client.

One of the most important skills great salespeople and business owners have is their ability to listen. 

What’s more important is the ability to ask the right questions in the first place. This, this is where the star performers separate themselves from the middle of the pack in the professional world. 

Help them find what they want

Couples who inquire for your wedding services start the conversation. And they usually do it with questions. “Are you available and how much does it cost?”

But here’s the thing: 

You have to learn so much more about what’s going to make a good answer before you can offer it to them. Before you can respond with any sort of accuracy you have to know what they want.

And that’s such a challenge. Most people have no idea what they want. None. Especially if they’re buying something they’ve never bought before, like, say, wedding services.

You be the coach

While the couple may ask you questions about pricing and availability, what they really need is to know what to ask for in the first place. So while you should absolutely acknowledge the question(s) they ask, you’ve got to lead them to the more important question they need an answer to:

“What do I want?”

If your couples are like most humans, they won’t feel good about a decision until they know for sure that it gets them closer to what they want. That’s why they waffle at the end of the decision-making process. 

Help them feel good early on and you’ll make more money later when they decide on the perfect vendor. 

That’s a piece of advice you can take all the way to the bank.