Let’s pick up on this theme of listening and being comfortable with silence. If you can exert mastery over your tendency to fill the silence, all kinds of good things accrue. First, you make room for dialogue, not monologue. For conversation, not just empty give and take.

Then, you give yourself an opportunity to really understand what someone is saying. This understanding comes through the questions you ask, and there are three types of questions.

The Three Types of Questions Used In a Sales Conversation

1. Closed-ended
2. Open-ended
3. Impact

Closed-ended questions are those that yield a one-word answer. “How are things?” “Good.” Very informative!

Open-ended questions go a bit farther and yield a longer answer; “What have you been working on?” “Not falling asleep.”Okay, that’s a start.

Impact questions go all the way. These are questions that ask someone to actually think; “Given what…