How do you use questions to guide conversation?

in the sales activity it is essential to know the market. any opportunity to carry out a sales process means, beyond this main purpose, a permanent collection of information about the market, products, competition. a discussion about the competitive advantage of your product is implicitly an opportunity to update your information, from the perspective of utility for your client and from the way you position yourself vis-à-vis a competitor.

I agree with knowing the purpose before asking questions. I work with real-time data in a market where data are not easily available. Hence, to gather information, I have to use many open-ended questions to the market participants which will ultimately help me reach the answer that I require.

I agree with this approach but demonstrating active listening by recapping important information from the answers to gain clarification is a key element to ensuring people feel heard and that their opinion or view has value. This builds trust and rapport whilst allowing the questioner to confirm and expand on answers. This gives a clear direction for the line of questioning whilst giving the opportunity to revert back to points that were clarified earlier if needed.

it seems essential to me that in any conversation we add a dose of empathy. it's an approach that takes you much closer to success, no matter what the purpose of the conversation is. in addition, it is an approach that denotes a lot of consideration, both towards oneself and towards the interlocutor.

Yes asking with confidence is pertinent for effective communication, but before this make sure of: i. Knowing the topic you are asking questions this will aid your confidence. ii. Do your scenario analysis beforehand so that you do not look surprised when things come curved ball in your way. iii. For confidence to be shown there are small preps that require which helps build overall confidence. Practice and preparedness is very important.