This document outlines a presentation by Richardson, a global sales training company, on developing presentation skills for influence and persuasion. The presentation covers identifying what makes someone persuasive through trust, authenticity, clarity and value. It also discusses different influencing styles, critical skills for influencing like presence, relating, questioning, positioning, listening and checking, and challenges like cognitive dissonance and resolving objections. The overall content is aimed to help clients across industries improve their influencing and persuasion abilities to drive revenue and customer relationships.
18. SIX CRITICAL SKILLS: QUESTIONING
Fostering openness and creating dialogue to uncover, explore, shape, and define needs
Pursuing —
Ask drill-down
questions in order to
go deeper into
something that the
customer said that is
vague or broad to
learn more about the
customer’s thinking.
Prefacing —
Introduce your
question with a
rationale to make
you and the
customer more
comfortable with
the question and
to encourage a
more complete
response. Pacing — Maintain
an effective pace
that allows your
customer time to
think and respond.
Phrasing — Word
your questions to
be most effective.
Ask open-ended
questions to
encourage
openness.
FOUR Ps OF
QUESTIONING
26. SIX CRITICAL SKILLS: CHECKING
Eliciting feedback to inform your next best move
After you have answered a question or
an objection:
• “How does that answer your question?”
• “How close is this to what you were
driving at?”
Before you transition to
Commit:
• “What other concerns or
issues can I address
while I’m here?”
After you have positioned an idea or
solution:
• “How does that sound?”
Before you ask for
commitment, do a final
check.
• “How do you feel
about what we
covered today?”After you have talked for several
minutes:
• “We’ve covered … up to now. Perhaps
this is a good time to get some
reactions or questions.”
• “Let me stop for a moment. What
questions or thoughts do you …?”