The art of asking questions

A client told me recently that his favorite interview question is, “if I asked your friends to describe you in one word, what would they say?”  He stated that often times he gets answers such as “funny, witty, adventurous, and charming” which he finds irrelevant or inappropriate for an interview. I asked him what he was looking for and he said “words like leader, responsible, or planner – something that will give me some insight to how they might fit into our culture or what they might be like to work with.”  But honestly, is that how your friends would describe you? Probably not.  You may be all of that AND a bag of chips, but that’s not what comes to mind first when you’re talking about your friends. So I asked him, “are you asking the right question?”

As a proposal professional, I’ve learned that there’s definitely an art to asking a question. We have so many people we have to ask questions of – the sales person who can tell us about the client; the subject matter expert who can tell us about what our products can or cannot do; and the potential client who can provide clarifications about their RFP. Often times a “yes” or a “no” is just the beginning. What we really need to know is why or how. Here’s an example of a question you might ask a SME. Which question do you think will be more effective in getting the information you need to write your proposal?

A: “Can we provide the client with online appointment scheduling?”

B: “Can we provide the client with online appointment scheduling? If so, please explain how it works and what makes our solution better than the competition. Graphics, process flows, or pictures would be great if you have them.  If we can’t provide this capability, please explain why we don’t do this today, what our preferred approach to scheduling is instead, and if there is any planned development of this capability.

Context is everything and knowledge is power. Mastering the art of asking questions gets you the results you need faster.