The most important skill for making a sale is also a major weakness of every salesperson: asking questions.

It’s an enigma to me. Questions are so critical, you’d think they would be the topic of training every week. Yet salespeople are odds-on favorites to have never taken one training program in the science of asking a question.      How critical are questions? The first personal (rapport) question sets the tone for the meeting, and the first business question sets the tone for the sale. That’s critical.

What are the benefits of asking the right question? Good question. Following are 9.5 benefits to making sales by asking questions. The right question will:

1. Qualify the buyer.

2. Establish rapport.

3. Create prospect disparity.

4. Eliminate or differentiate from the competition.

5. Build credibility.

6. Know the customer and the customer’s business.

7. Identify needs.

8. Find hot buttons.

9. Get personal information.

9.5. Close the sale.

All these answers come from asking the right questions – power questions.      Here’s the rub: Do you have 25 of the most powerful questions you can create at your fingertips? No? Join the crowd; 95 percent of all salespeople don’t, and that could be why only 5 percent of salespeople rise to the top

Here’s the challenge: Get every prospect and customer to say, “No one ever asked me that before.”

Here are 7.5 questioning success strategies:

1. Ask questions that make the prospect evaluate new information.

2. Ask questions that qualify needs.

3. Ask questions about improved productivity or profits.

4. Ask questions about company or personal goals.

5. Ask questions that separate you from your competition rather than compare you to them.

6. Ask questions that make the prospect think before giving a response.

7. Ask power questions to create a buying atmosphere, not a selling atmosphere.

7.5. To enhance your listening skills, write down answers. It proves you care, preserves your data for follow-up, keeps the record straight and makes the customer feel important.

There’s a secret to creating and asking the right type of power question. Ask a question that makes the prospect stop and think about them and their business, and respond in terms of your business and you. It sounds complicated, but it isn’t.

Here are some examples of bad questions: What type of life insurance do you have? Do you have a pager? Who do you currently use for long-distance service?

Conversely, here are some examples of good ones: If your husband died, how would the house payments be made and how would the children go to college? If your most important customer called right now, how would you get the message? If your long-distance charges were 30 percent higher than they should be, how would you know?

Let’s say I train sales teams (hey, what a coincidence, I do). Here are questions designed to make prospects think about themselves, and answer in terms of me (answers are not given here, and can sometimes play a part in question order, but you’ll get the process): How many of your salespeople did not meet their sales goals last year? Why? What plans have you made to ensure that they will meet their goals this year? What type of personal development plan for each salesperson have you put into place? How do you support your sales staff? How much training did you budget last year? How much did you wish you had budgeted? When training takes place, how do you measure each individual’s professional development progress? If everyone exceeded their sales goals this year, what would be the financial impact on the company? May I present a plan to you that would make this happen?

These questions will give me enough answers to rewrite their sales record book (and their checkbook).

It’s not just asking questions; it’s asking the right questions. A sale is made or lost based on the questions you ask. If you aren’t making all the sales you want, start by evaluating the specific wording of the questions you’re asking. Your answers are in your questions.

Questions unlock sales. Any questions?

Free GitBit: 17 unstoppable power questions. Just what you need to start your collection. Go to www.gitomer.com, register if you’re a first-time user and enter the words POWER QUESTION in the GitBit box.

Jeffrey Gitomer, president of Charlotte, N.C.-based Buy Gitomer, gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on selling and customer service at www.trainone.com. He can be reached at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com.