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Assuming that everyone likes to buy, but people don't like being sold to, how does anything ever get sold?
When I prepare attorneys for interviews I often say that you make yourself different from every other candidate by the questions that you ask. If you ask typical interview questions and treat the interview like anyone else how can anyone tell the difference between you and the next candidate.
Good questions help us map capabilities to a list of requirements. For the prospective client, they may have an idea what their business issues are, but maybe no one has asked them questions that made them think of other issues. Are you going to be a cost to them or help them manage risk in a way that actually saves them money or time?
Good questions help qualify bad opportunities out sooner.
- Are you one of 10 other firms they are talking with that they just want to beat up on bill rate, or can you both win in this relationship?
- In an organization, do you just have one point of contact or multiple contacts across various business lines? What types of business conversations can you have to identify business goals that map to your capabilities from HR, operations, marketing, finance, sales, research departments?
- Who are your advocates, who are your adversaries?
- How can you defuse the competition by positioning unique capabilities? Do you even know what REALLY makes you unique?
- What does a good client development meeting look like afterwords?
I start with the fundamentals of the conversation because without it, all of your seminars, cold calls, email campaigns, boards that you sit on, and every other function are just talk.
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