In my early days of sales I was taught to ask only open-ended questions in discovery. And I was told to avoid yes/no questions.
This black-and-white approach just doesn’t work. There’s a time and a place for everything. It’s all about context, and nuance – so let’s break it down quickly here.
First, let’s look at the main rationale for why people might argue that you should avoid yes/no questions in discovery:
You want your prospect to open up and start talking. A yes/no question will elicit a yes/no answer. If it’s a tight-lipped prospect, they’ll be happy to stop at a one-syllable answer.
Awkward.
Here’s the real deal: the “prescription” to ask open-ended questions and avoid yes/no questions sounds great… but there are two main problems with this prescription.
1. Just telling sellers to “ask open-ended questions” doesn’t help them know which questions they should ask.
Solution: use a Problem Identification Chart to identify your ICP’s Business Problems, along with the Impacts and Root Causes of those business problems. This serves as the seller’s road map for the questions they should ask their buyers. (If you’d like this template, DM me!)
2. It ignores the power that yes/no questions can have in certain contexts. In the Gap Selling framework, validating questions are basically yes/no questions. Here’s when you use validating questions: after discussing key data points related to the buyer’s business problems, the seller should connect the dots and validate that they’ve understood this cause-and-effect environment accurately.
Example: “So Mr./Ms. Buyer, from what we’ve discussed so far, your team’s current win rates are 10%, which is why you’ve increased your ad spend. By my calculations, your increased ad spend has increased your Customer Acquisition Costs by X%. Do I have this right?”
There is power is “yes”. There is power in “no”. Regardless of whether you’re right or wrong, your prospect will most likely elaborate on their answer. So, you either have consensus on your analysis, or you gain a deeper understanding of where your analysis went wrong.
Summing it up:
Discovery goes far deeper than open/ended vs yes/no questions. It all starts with a solid understanding of knowing what business problems you’re looking for. Most sellers don’t even know to look for business problems, which is why they ask a few surface-level questions and then jump to demo or solution.
In the Gap Selling framework, there are 3 key types of open-ended questions: probing, process, and provoking. Additionally, validating questions are yes/no questions to validate that you’ve understood the information gathered previously.
What has been your experience? When else would you use – or avoid – yes/no questions in discovery?
"Why yes and no questions are good for discovery."
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