One of my most enthusiastic clients asked me to quote her up on some sales copy recently. So I did. For the most minimal research (which is not negotiable if you want sales copy that works) and one letter, she was facing about $2,500.
In response, she asked if I believe it’ll get the results she wants.
I replied, ‘I believe it’s better than not doing it’.
She laughed. ‘Come onnnnn,’ she said. ‘You’ve got a crystal ball, right?’
Asking anybody external to your business to guarantee results in something that comes down to you is like saying:
‘Hey, here’s a crystal ball. I believe you have magic powers and that whatever you see in the future is damned sure going to happen, because the future is knowable and fixed, anyway, you can collapse the wave…’ etcetera.
To put this into context for you, her business is very young. We’re talking about 12 months old, tops. In my opinion - which I was blunt about - she’s better off going out and asking people questions, instead of splashing her money around everywhere. She laughed when I told her not to bleed out. I don’t think she realised how serious I was.
However, when I told her to go and learn about her market, she wanted to know what questions to ask. I hesitated before sharing a set of questions with her.
You might be wondering why I hesitated.
Here’s why: Right now, that set of questions is worth at least $500,000. Without them, I wouldn’t be here today.
This week I have had the occasion to notice that people don’t know what good questions are.
Not only did I teach this customer what customer validation questions are, I had to coach her on why and how questions become sales.
And, I chewed out a mentee for running the Five Whys on shitty questions - after she’d exhibited a complete inability to ask good questions either of her clients, or in conversation.
Here’s my point. If you put rubbish in, you’ll get rubbish out. Nowhere does this apply more than in questioning. Ask a shitty question, have a shitty conversation. Ask a shitty question, get a shitty interview. Ask a shitty question, chase the wrong rabbit down the wrong hole and come to the wrong conclusion. There’s a reason why there are so many goddamned crap podcasts in the world.
After I got all steamed up about why the world is daft on this matter, I realised that even though I’ve talked a lot about interrogation in my time, I haven’t actually written as much about it as I thought I have. Not even in my first book, which covers the mechanics of rock journalism, do I really go into the mechanics of interrogation.
That’s going to change. It won’t be here though; it’ll be over on my personal site as I develop the follow-up volume to that book. (It’s in progress, by the way. Go to http://patreon.com/biodagar to follow that project.)
Good questions are the centre of:
Understanding your clients, their situations, their needs
Understanding your prospects, their situations, their needs, and their understanding
Understanding why you’re in this pickle, or won this challenge
Running a fantastic sales interaction
Having a great conversation
Making new friends, socially or in business
Learning, of all kinds
Interviewing people with class, and achieving great outcomes
Positioning, from strategy to brand
Maintaining all kinds of relationships.
If you’re not a student of interrogation, you’re seriously putting yourself at a disadvantage.
Along the way to my realisation that perhaps not everybody has spent as much of their lives questioning people, and listening to themselves question people, as I have, I had pulled out a series of past notebooks to find a reference. That reference was for the customer who opened today’s missive.
I’ve got loads of notebooks. They’re dated. On my bookshelf is a series of notebooks with DATE - DATE on the spine in gold pen. You might expect that. I’m a writer by nature; I carry a notebook and a pen in my wallet, just in case I don’t have my main book with me.
The great Jim Rohn was also a huge proponent of notebooks. He called them the most valuable things he owns.
When I first heard him say that, I laughed with a kind of warm, lighthearted agreeance. Now, though? I’d protect them before the rest of my library. The other day, I went through notebooks that I’ve kept right from the first full year of Brutal Pixie (2013), and the sheer amount of study, thinking, questions, mapping, and ideas that I’ve worked through nearly knocked me sideways.
In the flow of day-to-day business and life, it’s easy to forget how much you work through. Being able to see it - along with the books you’ve read, the ideas they sparked, and how your business has changed - is breathtaking.
If you don’t have a notebook and a pen, rectify it today.
And if you’re keen to see my forthcoming work on the interrogative arts, either leave a comment or send me an email (biodagar AT biodagar.com) , and I’ll add you to my mailing list. :)