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Practice guides

Which question helped you understand the buyer?

Audit your questions by what they produced.

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The short answer

How do you evaluate your discovery questions?

List every question you asked and mark whether it got one word, a longer answer or a real story. Find the question that produced the most detail, notice its shape (often a follow-up) and write two more like it.

Foreword

Why it matters

Question-asking, especially follow-up questions, makes conversations go better for both people1. Reviewing which of your questions actually produced understanding turns that finding into a habit you can check2.

Feedback

0.79

average effect size of feedback on achievement across the studies reviewed2

Retrieval

61%

of a passage recalled a week later after three practice tests, against 40% after four readings3

Spacing

839

assessments of spaced versus massed practice, from 317 experiments, in one review4

What we’ll cover in this guide

  • Part 01: List every question
  • Part 02: Find the winner and copy it
  • Your practice task: a short exercise to try with Selly
  • Conclusion and what to practise next

Part 01: List every question

Go through the call and write down each question you asked, in order.

Getting the facts

Count them

Many sellers are surprised how few questions they asked, or how many were stacked into one breath.

Mark each one

Did it get a one-word answer, a longer answer or a story with detail?

Reflection questions and how to get started

  • How many questions did you ask? Compare with how long you talked.
  • Did you stack questions? Ask one at a time.

Part 02: Find the winner and copy it

The question that produced the best detail is your template.

Repeating what worked

Look at its shape

Was it about a real event? Did it follow something the buyer had just said? Most good questions are follow-ups.

Write two more like it

Use the same shape for other topics, then try them next time.

Reflection questions and how to get started

  • Was your best question a follow-up? Plan more follow-ups.
  • Which question would you drop? Replace it with one shaped like the winner.

Your practice task

  1. After a practice call with Selly, list every question you asked.
  2. Mark which ones produced a one-word answer, a longer answer or a story.
  3. Identify the question that produced the most detail and write two more with the same shape.
  4. Run the call again and use them.

Conclusion

The best question in a call is a template. Find it, notice why it worked, and build the next call around questions shaped like it.

Ready to practise this out loud?

Rehearse it with Coach Selly, read the feedback and try again.

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Sources cited

  1. Huang, K., Yeomans, M., Brooks, A. W., Minson, J., & Gino, F. (2017). It doesn’t hurt to ask: Question-asking increases liking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(3), 430–452.
  2. Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81–112.
  3. Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255.
  4. Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354–380.

AI-assisted editorial practice material. Conversation examples are written for practice. Practice does not guarantee a sales result.

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