Developing and asking good questions serves to:

* Allow differentiation of services or agencies
* Minor resistance or objections
* Create a platform for a sales and marketing strategy specific to that referral source

The Basics of Good Questioning Skills

Open-ended questions that are well crafted and thought out in advance can really start sales or marketing phone conversations. After all, conversations are the first step in building a relationship with a person, and relationships are key to getting referrals in the home care business! The best home care sales and marketing people are the ones who talk the least in sales call situations. They have mastered the skill of asking good open-ended questions as a way to get the conversation flowing. That is not to say that there is no place for closed questions. or situational questions. As a home care marketer, you need to have some basic information about the situation from a referral source. However, asking too many situational questions will feel more like an interrogation session with your referral source.

Examples of situational questions

Situational questions are ones that a prospect or referral source can answer in a word or two, or simply with a yes or no. These are questions of little value to the person you are trying to sell or market to, mainly because the focus is on you getting information from them. These questions tend to begin with words or phrases such as who? when? do you want? how often? and do you have

Questions like…

* Do you make home care referrals?
* How many referrals do you make in a week?
* Who do you mean?

…are all closed questions and situational in nature. They can all be answered in a couple of words, and probably won’t lead to a deeper conversation or understanding of what will eventually prompt that referral source to make that first referral.

Examples of open questions

The real payoff in sales and marketing comes when you develop good open-ended questions. These questions tend to begin with the words say, what, why, and how. The words feel and think will also play an important role in the open questions. Examples of open questions are;

*Tell me about the types of patients you see.
* Why do you think it is important?
* What do you think a home health agency could do to improve the care of their patients?

These questions not only give your prospects or referral sources the opportunity to give you good information about themselves or your organization, but also serve to uncover their real feelings about why and to whom they refer.

Take a few minutes to develop and write your own set of questions. Give them a try the next time you engage a referral source in a conversation about your agency.