20 Questions

Do you remember as a kid when you had a family member perhaps shouting at a parent saying I’m tired you’ve given me 20 questions.

What’s with the whole 20 questions act.

Well guess what.

Now it’s your turn.

I need you to actually prepare 20 questions that you want to ask this person you’re presenting to.

And write them down.

What are the questions that you would ask if you were going to do this as a structured interview.

Now you’re not going to treat it like an interview.

This is you presenting to them.

However the more you can engage them the more you can get them talking generally the smarter they will think you are.

And this firsthand from my own new business pitches the more I can get my prospect to talk the less I talk quite often the smarter they think I am and the more likely they are to hire me.

So I need you to plan some questions.

Whatever it is you do your area of expertise.

Ask them about how they already do it.

What are their challenges.

What do they think would be the ideal world the ideal scenario.

Everything can happen the way they wanted to.

Based on the things you do.

So I want you to write down 20 questions or type 20 questions.

It’s not that you’re going to ask all of these but the sheer fact that you’ve thought about these will make it easier when the conversation goes in a certain area you can see them You look skeptical or their eyes light up.

You can then follow up in a way that seems organic that seems natural and spontaneous to ask that question.

Now it will be spontaneous because it’s not you following a set script but it’s going to be easier for you to have that question come out of your mouth because you’ve already thought about it.

You’ve planned it.

You’ve given it some contemplation.

So that’s what I wanted you to do right now is write down 20 questions that you might like to ask this person.

These could certainly be questions that then lead you to your strengths what it is you do how you might solve their problem and all of your other messages.

So again you’re not memorizing the questions you’re certainly not going to walk in with a big sheet of paper and be quite reading questions off to them but you are going to have it in your mind thinking about it and ready to throw ones out when appropriate.

So write down not one or two or three but at least 20 questions.