“Lead with answers that create questions in your buyer”, says Dr Brian Glibkowski, creator of Answer Intelligence (AQ)™. We are often taught that “our credibility comes from the questions we ask, not the information that we give” and to a point that is true. Ask great, thought provoking, insightful questions and you clearly demonstrate your competence and credibility. But do we really pay anywhere near enough attention on the answers you give?

In the same way that you are unlikely to ever hear an original objection or be asked an original question, ALL of these communication moments can be planned, prepared and rehearsed until they are a natural part of every salesperson’s and manager’s repertoire.

individuals overemphasise on questions and minimise importance of answers

Brian continues, “Sellers have no typology of answers. We have the 6WH typology for questions but we don’t pay critical attention and focus on becoming better at providing answers. There is often a mismatch between their questions and our answers resulting in disconnected conversation, a lack of listening and the quality of answers is shallow.”

You can’t sell shallow and sell deep at the same time. The lack of intentionality is projected out from sellers to buyers, who reflect back the high self-orientation of sellers who too often aren’t present because they are listening for a gap to speak or ask their next manipulative, self-serving question. Some really juicy material in this episode.