How to Ask Better, More Emotional Questions Part 1

What’s the key to asking better, more emotional questions? Engage the cognitive dissonance in the brain. Understand the person that you sit before by asking questions that uncover personal information about them as it pertains to how YOU can HELP them.

Wait a minute Mitch….those are big words…what does cognitive dissonance mean? Cognitive dissonance is the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change. Do most of your clients have cognitive dissonance regarding what you do for your service or product? Answer: YES. The more we can understand how to ask better, more emotional questions, the more we can affect change and have our clients understand what we bring to the table, and ultimately allow us to serve them better.

Let’s talk about two different questions that you may ask a potential client. These two questions may seem to be pretty much the same on the surface but the end result and answer from your client could be vastly different. You may ask your client “Where are you from?” This typically will elicit a one-word answer with the name of a town or state (depending on how far they are away from home). Yet when you ask them, “Where did you grow up?” it engages an emotional response in their brain.

It brings them back to the days of growing up, relatives’ houses, childhood friends, hanging out, and possibly both positive and negative memories.

When you ask “Where did you grow up?” you enliven their senses, you bring back memories of meals (smells and tastes), people (sight), music (sound), you tap into emotion. Sales are made on emotion and justified on logic. Do you want more sales? Get more emotional. Watch this space next week for part 2 of how to ask better, more emotional questions.