4. Asks Questions sesigned to Uncover the "Real" Pain, Not Just the "Stated" Pain.

Jean DiGiovanna of ThinkPeople refers to this as "staying curious," and this is a common theme in many sales and consulting training programs and books, particularly those that espouse a "solution-selling" approach. Powerful questions are, generally, open-ended questions designed to get the customer talking. They often lead to the opportunity to ask follow-up questions, deeper discussions, and more information.

So what does a a question that is designed to uncover the real pain look like? Let's look at an example. A consultant may ask a question this way:

"Do you have a process for managing employee time off?"

Or this way:

"How do you manage employee time off?"

Which do you think is likely to result in an answer that provides the ability to ask follow up questions and deeper insights?

Questions that start with "what" and "how" generally open discussions, giving the interviewee a chance to answer in detail. They generally provide a lot of information on which the consultants can build his investigations.

The first question, in contrast, is a closed question, and there is a real chance that the answer could be a simple "yes" or "no." What have you gained in this case...one person's opinion and no understanding why they gave the answer they did. Depending on the answer, the interview could be over with one question.

In many situations, symptoms of problems are visible, even obvious. Still, the root cause is not. A manager may feel, for instance, that that problem is that the staff is not accountable for their actions..."we need to fix the accountability problem." She may feel that because the work isn't getting done on time or quality standards aren't being met. A consultant may ask:

"Has the team's manager set proper expectations with the staff about deadlines and quality?"

The answer may simply be, "Well, of course." However, if the consultant asks:

"How does the team's manager set proper expectations with the staff about deadlines and quality?"

The interviewee will start to describe what she knows, and the consultant can determine for himself if expectations have been set properly. More likely, the consultant will determine what additional questions need to be asked and to whom.

As the consultant meets with the staff, management, and customers - asking powerful questions and learning about multiple perspectives - if may be clear that the management team has not properly set the staffs expectations. While at face value the root cause of the problem may appear to stem with the work effort of the staff, the real problem may be with a manager's approach.

The lesson: Do your homework. Get multiple perspectives. Look inside and outside the organization for the root case of the issues and pain they are experiencing. Don't assume the client knows what is going on...they often don't. This is not a slam on our clients, but let's face it...everyone is over worked and has too few resources to really assess every situation. If your clients knew what the real problem was, they'd be in a much better position to fix it themselves.