Using Power Questions–Your Week 10 Client Growth Challenge
In Week 10 of your client growth challenge, you’ll develop three Power Questions for a client.
For the critical background you’ll need to complete this week’s challenge, be sure to read Week 10 of It Starts with Clients, “Use Power Questions.”
The greatest minds have always focused on asking the right questions.
“Computers are useless” Pablo Picasso, the 20th century’s greatest artist, told a journalist in the 1960s. He added, “They can only give you answers.”
The 1988 winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, Naguib Mafouz, said,“You can tell if a man is clever by his answers.You can tell if a man is wise by his questions.”
And the great physicist Albert Einstein once wrote to a friend, saying “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
Client executives understand this. One CEO told us,“When someone comes into my office to pitch their services to me, I can always tell how experienced they are by the quality of the questions they ask.”
Answers are important. But if you want to create the great conversations that build deep, powerful relationships, you need to become skilled at asking thought-provoking questions. Indeed, our greatest thinkers, artists, writers and inventors have always focused on asking the right questions rather than coming up with quick, easy answers.
TIP: Bring three thoughtful, thought-provoking questions to every client conversation.
I now spend a good portion of my meeting preparation developing the questions I want to ask. I try to come up with questions that will advance my understanding of the client’s priorities and goals, and that will also strengthen our rapport and trust. I focus on the following criteria:
- Open-ended
- Surprising
- Focuses the conversation on the right issues
- Uncovers the other person’s agenda
- Identifies root causes
- Explores the full context
- Create a personal connection/personal knowledge
- Engages through self-assessment
Your Week 10 challenge: Develop three Power Questions
Here’s your Week 10 Assignment: Complete pages 36-37 in the Growth Guide. You can also click here to download this assignment as a separate PDF: Week 10 Assignment.pdf