Power Questions: Build Relationships, Win New Business, and Influence Others

"Power Questions" includes more than 300 questions, tailored to a range of situations. They include questions to ask CEOs to win contracts, to help us learn from our mistakes, and to encourage co-workers and friends.

The authors include real-life case studies alongside 34 key questions in this book, showing the impact those questions had, or the difference they made. They also offer a step-by-step guide at the end of each chapter that explains when to use specific questions, how to modify them, and how to follow them up.

So, who's this book for? "Power Questions" is most relevant to people in sales and marketing, who need to engage customers to win new business. Leaders and managers who want to build rapport with their teams will also benefit from this book. But the authors cover a huge range of scenarios, giving "Power Questions" a broad appeal. So really, it's for anyone who wants to connect with others on a deeper level and get inside their heads, hearts and minds, whether to influence and persuade them or to encourage and inspire them.

Andrew Sobel and Jerold Panas are experts in building relationships and in the art of persuasion. Sobel is a leading authority on the skills and strategies you need to earn long-lasting client loyalty. He's written several books on this topic, including the award-winning "All for One" and the bestselling "Clients for Life." He's been widely featured in the media, including Harvard Business Review, the New York Times, and USA Today.

Panas is the CEO of Jerold Panas, Linzy & Partners, the world's largest consulting firm advising nonprofit organizations and foundations on fundraising. He's a renowned consultant in philanthropy and has written 13 bestselling books, including "Asking" and "Mega Gifts."

So, keep listening to hear how to test your business idea with a probing question, one clichéd question to avoid, and how the right question can turn a pointless meeting into a productive one.

"Power Questions" is written in two parts. The bulk of the book is a series of short chapters with stories built around the 34 key questions you heard about earlier. Most of these anecdotes are drawn from the authors' conversations with clients, managers and leaders, while a few of them are taken from the lives of business legends like Apple's Steve Jobs.

The second part of the book is much smaller, consisting of a further 293 questions. These are divided into scenarios, such as discussing a proposal, preparing for a meeting, mentoring others, resolving a crisis, and engaging employees.

If you'd like even more questions, Sobel has two short ebooks that make great companions to this one: "Power Questions to Build Clients for Life" and "Power Questions to Win the Sale." These ebooks go deep into those two key areas, offering question-based strategies for building a better understanding of clients' needs, and for overcoming common sales challenges.

In a new addition to the series, Sobel has released a handy app so that you can carry his advice around in your pocket and access the right question whenever you need it.

With all these resources, we should never be stuck for a question again. But just how useful are the authors' questions? Let's take a closer look at this book, starting with their tips on how to close a deal.

In a chapter on sales, the authors tell the story of Dean Kamen, an inventor with more than 100 patents to his name, including an electric wheelchair and a portable kidney dialysis machine. Back in 2001, Kamen revealed his latest invention: the Segway, a two-wheeled, battery-powered personal transporter.

Kamen had high hopes for his new gadget, as did the business press. He predicted that corporate executives would be riding the Segway to work, wondering how they'd ever lived without it. But a decade later, only 50,000 models had been sold, versus a forecast of tens of millions. As it turned out, people preferred to commute as they always had done, rather than switch to a motorized upright scooter.

So what went wrong? What was the question Kamen failed to ask?

The authors pinpoint one key question that every salesperson must ask of potential customers: "Are they ready to buy?" This might sound simplistic, but the authors break it down into a series of sub-questions, or conditions that we must meet in order to sell a product or service.

The first two are, "Does the buyer have a significant problem or opportunity that needs my solution?" and, "Does the person I'm speaking with own the problem?" In other words, can they take action? Then there's, "Are they in charge of making decisions or holding the purse strings?" and, "Does the client have a healthy dissatisfaction with what's currently available?" That is, is now the right time to strike? And finally, "Are they sufficiently irritated with the status quo?" and, "Does the buyer trust me and believe I'm the best option?"

If the prospective buyer meets all these conditions, it's likely we've got a sale – which takes us back to the story of the Segway. The personal transporter didn't meet the first condition: it didn't solve a significant problem or meet a pressing need. Kamen's customers were not "ready to buy," so the Segway flopped.

We like how the authors break down one overriding question into different conditions. This process really helps to get inside a prospective customer's head, and we can see how it could help to make a sale.

Let's now look at one question we should all avoid if we're trying to persuade someone to hire us, buy from us, or do business with us.

When we're trying to sell to others, it's important to know what their needs are so that we can tailor our pitch. We need to probe for information, to find out if there's a problem, and if so, what it is. But we need to do this creatively, rather than falling back on tired clichés.

"What keeps you up at night?" is a common question in the sales arena, but it's a lazy one, Sobel and Panas argue. They tell the story of how Fred, a CEO of a multinational, threw a salesman out of his office for asking that question. Why did it annoy him so much?

Firstly, he'd heard it too many times. Secondly, it suggested the salesman was poorly prepared – that he hadn't done his homework and was simply hoping Fred would share his biggest worries with someone he'd only just met. And finally, Fred wasn't involved in operational problems. Other executives handled those. He was responsible for growth and innovation, so the question didn't really fit his brief.

So, what's a better alternative? Good salespeople thoroughly research the people they're meeting, the company, and the market – and this shows in their questions. In Fred's case, the salesman could have asked, "How are you feeling about the merger of your two biggest rivals?" or, "I heard you speak at a conference last week. How is your new growth strategy going to impact your bottom line?" Showing we've done our homework establishes our credibility and earns trust.

We like the way the authors use this meeting with Fred to show how some CEOs react to lazy questions. The anecdote underlines their argument that we must ask insightful questions and be well prepared in order to win respect – and ultimately, business.

Let's now look at how the right questions can turn rambling meetings into focused ones.

We're probably all familiar with meetings that drag on or achieve little. What about colleagues or bosses who procrastinate, instead of making decisions? The authors offer some simple tips on running productive meetings and creating a culture of decisiveness.

They suggest asking two questions: one before the meeting, the other after. The first is, "What decisions do we need to make in this meeting?" Preferably, everyone will have asked and answered this question before the agenda gets circulated. But if not, we need to make sure it's the first thing spoken in the meeting.

Then we need to round the meeting off by asking, "What have we decided today?" This question goes beyond identifying a series of action steps. It's about making sure the meeting has served its initial purpose and that concrete decisions were taken.

At the back of the book, the authors include a dozen or so additional questions to help improve meetings, beginning with, "Is there an alternative to having a meeting?" Other questions include, "Can we do this in 30 minutes, rather than an hour?" and, "Was this a good use of our time?" as a meeting wraps up.

This is simple advice. It's nothing groundbreaking, but the authors' message is still worth hearing. It's so easy to ignore the basics when holding meetings, and these questions can help to streamline the process, saving valuable time and energy, and increasing productivity.

Alongside practical questions like those, you'll find broader ones that probe more deeply. These are especially useful for coaching and inspiring others to achieve their potential. For example, "If you knew you had only three years to live, what would you hope to achieve personally and professionally?" We can turn this question on ourselves and use it to help take stock of our lives and perhaps choose a new direction.

We also liked the story of a conversation between Sobel and renowned management thinker, Peter Drucker. In it, Drucker shared five questions that organizations must answer to be successful. These are: "What is your mission?" "Which are the most important relationships you want to invest in?" "What are the priorities and goals of those closest to you?" "What are your expectations of the people around you, and what do they expect from you?" And, "What's your plan?"

These questions work just as well in our personal lives as in business. And we can use them when coaching others, as well as for self-reflection. We like how the authors challenge readers to examine their lives through these questions, even if the material itself belongs to Drucker.

In the Drucker story and throughout the book, the authors mix practical tips with a deeper message, and this is one of the strengths of "Power Questions." It's a manual to help us navigate meetings, have better conversations with clients, and sell more products and services. But it also inspires us to look at our own lives and to encourage those around us to strive for more.

Storytelling is another of this book's strengths. A book about questions could easily be a dry read, but the personal anecdotes bring it to life. We read how salespeople, CEOs, coaches, mentors, and parents asked different questions to great effect, and these stories help us work out which questions would work for us, and when to use them. The authors write in a relaxed, conversational tone, which also works well.

On the downside, there are some questions in the book that are too obvious. For example, the authors devote an entire chapter to the unoriginal question, "What do you think?" And while they rail against clichés, some of their suggested questions are well worn. The bullet points at the end of each chapter, which outline when we should use a question and offer alternatives, are also pretty obvious in many cases.

But overall, "Power Questions" is a really practical and easy-to-use reference guide to preparing for client meetings and big conversations, that also has a deeper, more personal message. If used alongside Sobel's two ebooks and the app, you'll never be stuck for something to ask, and you'll have some great tools for connecting with people and building more profitable and meaningful relationships.

"Power Questions" by Andrew Sobel and Jerold Panas is published by John Wiley & Sons.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Thanks for listening.