Anything You Can Tell, You Can Ask: The One Rule That Changes Selling

The rule

Whatever you are about to tell a client, about urgency, about why you are worth it, about the obvious right choice, you can ask instead. Turn the statement into a question whose likely answer is the thing you were going to say. Then let them say it.

Why it beats telling every time

People trust their own thoughts more than they trust yours. A conclusion you hand someone is something to be skeptical of. A conclusion they reach themselves is something they defend. When the client argues your case for you, the sale is already made.

Turn your statements into questions

• Instead of "this will save you a ton of time," ask "what would it be worth to never have to deal with this again?"
• Instead of "I do really thorough work," ask "what went wrong the last time someone cut corners on this?"
• Instead of "you should book soon," ask "when do you need this done by?"

The discipline

The hard part is catching yourself. Most of us default to explaining. Before any line, ask whether it could be a question instead, and almost always it can. If you want to see it done line by line for a real client message, paste theirs into our free What to Say tool.