Open-ended questions Find Problems we can Solve.

Closed ended questions (or probes) limit the prospect’s responses to choices, like YES or NO. An open-ended question allows prospects to talk free and we get more meaningful answers this way.

Closed ended question examples…

— Are you tired of your job?

— Want a 5-day paid holiday job with a two-day work week?

— Do you like commuting to work?

Open ended question examples…

— What kind of health results are you looking for?

— What would you do if you could retire in 5 years at full pay?

— What is the biggest challenge at work you have now?

Closed-ended questions exist to confirm a fact or problem. Open ended questions exist to uncover problems. After all, you cannot confirm something that is not uncovered, can you?

Businesses Exist to Solve Problems

The only reason for businesses to exist is to solve people’s problems.

— if people had more energy all the time, selling energy products would be hard.

— If people never worked at hard boring jobs, selling opportunities that eliminate hard boring jobs would be difficult.

— If people were fit, selling diet products would be hard.

— If people never commuted to work, selling business opportunities that stop the commute to work would be hard.

If we do the talking or ask closed ended questions, we would be probing with a hit or miss guess approach to find people’s problems.

Is there a better way? Sure.

Stop the Guess Work

Instead of guessing, we should ask people to tell us their problems. This is a much better way to find problems, so we can solve them.

Some samples of an open ended question?

— What kind of diets did you try before?

— What does commuting to work do with your time away from family?

— What is the biggest challenge at your job that you face?

— What is the biggest skincare challenge you have now?

— What would you do if you could have 5-day vacations at full pay?

— Can you tell me what you think would be the perfect vacation?

— Why do you like coffee so much?

— What do you like least about your job?

— What do you like most about your job?

— Why do you like to work at a job you hate?

The more the prospect talks, the more the prospect realizes they don’t want their problems. The more open ended responses is great news for us.

That means no guessing. If we guessed, we could end up telling all the prospect wanted was a better night’s sleep or make an extra $500 a month working 3 hours a week.

We can’t solve problems with closed ended questions. And we can’t solve problems unless we know what the problem is. We solve problems quickly with open ended questions.