Questions or talk – which is better?

What questions do you expect some one to ask of you when you are buying something from them?

Imagine that you are buying a new car. Would you expect questions such as:

• What kind of driving do you do? (short or long journeys);

• Is economy important to you? (mpg):

• You have a family, how old are the children grandchildren?;

• Is it for business or personal use (or both)?

• Are you buying it personally or is it a company vehicle?

• What are you currently driving how did you decide to buy that car?

• How long do you typically keep a car for?

I am not a car salesman but I kind of think that these types of questions take precedence over a 30 minute fact find gathering my contact details.

Yesterday Martin and me took a trip out to look at buying a new car.

What we thought might be a 30 minute exercise including a test drive turned into a two hour plus marathon.

A combination of a young and  inexperienced salesman (to be fair he was charming and tried his very best) and some technology that made what we use look “state of the art” meant we sat desk bound for most of that time.

Again to be fair we were offered tea/coffee and even some chocolate (presumably to keep our blood sugar levels up!) but really, over two hours to buy a car?!

I know that new cars are not cheap and that it is an important buying decision but the “sales process” was neither slick nor engaging.

We both felt we could record the session as continuous professional development because it made us think about our own first meetings with clients.

Whilst some of it is “tell” we concluded that asking questions should always dominate such first interactions with prospective clients.

After all it is about them, not us.

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