How to ask questions

When we want to get information, we need to ask questions. Sometimes it is hard to decide how to ask questions, especially when we do not want the other party to know why we want to know the answers.

How to ask questions?

There are many kind of questions. We have to learn the tactics of asking various types of questions.

The first kind of questions is to ask open question. We ask open question to start a conversation. We can ask open question to invite discussion or argument.

One type of open question is to ask how the other party feels or thinks. For example, “do you think the stock market will improve?” is an open question. "how do you feel about forex trading?" is another open question. There is no right or wrong answer. We want to seek opinion.

Another example of open question is “how are you feeling now?” The answers can be anything. It is the best question in awkward situation when you do not know what to say or what to do.

The second kind of question is yes or no question. It is known as closed question. This is the type of question that lawyers like to ask the witness in cross examination. For example, “do you recognize this person?” The answer is either yes or no, there is no such thing as maybe.

Sometimes asking closed question is a way to direct the conversation to the way you want. For example, many salespersons use closed questions to start a sales pitch, such as “do you want to make a thousand dollars per month?” Many people will say yes. The next question will probably be “Do you know how to make a thousand dollars per month?”

In this case, the salesperson is using closed question as a leading question to arouse the curiosity of the other party.

The third kind of question is fact-finding question. This is the question that most bosses ask. For example, “what is the sales this week?” The bosses expect the staff to give a figure, in terms of sales amount and profit margins.

The fourth kind of question is follow-up question. Many salespersons make follow-up calls to find out the customers’ review of the products. For example, “do you find the product perform up to your expectation?”

The last kind of question is to seek feedback. This kind of questions occurs in many feedback forms. For example, “how do you rate our service?” Usually the answer comes in the form of Excellent to poor.

In a normal conversation, we will use many different kinds of questions. We do not always ask yes or no questions. We will sound like interrogators when we ask too many closed questions.

Sometimes we craft the questions in such a way that we are asking leading questions. We want to establish a base and rapport with our audience before revealing our real intention. The open question is best to find out how the other party thinks or feels.

Closed question is good as leading question, because there is only one correct answer. The difficulty is when the listener answers with “it depends.” Then we have to change the questioning tactic.

How to ask questions, especially how to ask the correct questions in the right situation is an art.