Encyclopedia of Leadership

In his best-seller, The SpinSelling Fieldbook, Neil Rackham describes the sequence used by

high-performing, large-project salespeople.

Extending Rackham’s research to

include leaders, here is an analysis of

the questioning sequence used by per-

suasive leaders.

288 SECTION 9 TOOLS FORLEADING ANDINFLUENCINGOTHERS

Situation

Questions

Problem

Questions

Implied

Needs

Implication

Questions

Need-payoff

Questions

Explicit

Needs

Benefits

Reprinted with permission from McGraw-Hill. Neil Rackham, The Spin Selling

Fieldbook: Practical Tools, Methods, Exercises, and Resources. McGraw-Hill, 1996, p. 49.

1. Situation Questions

“How many people are affected?”

“What process do you currently use?”

2. Problem questions

“How satisfied are you with the current

situation?”

“What problems are you having?”

3. Implication questions

“How would that increase your costs?”

“How does that impact your productivity?”

“What effect does this problem have on

your success?”

• Safe and easy questions to get back-
  ground information about the
  client’s situation.


• Often begin with “What?”,
  “Who?”, “When?”, and “How
  much?”


• Helpful to start a conversation, but
  it’s better to do your homework.


• Questions about the problems,
  difficulties, dissatisfactions of a client
  that you can solve with your
  solutions.


• More effective leaders ask more
  problem questions than situation
  questions, and they ask them sooner.


• The best problem questions get at
  concrete needs.


• These are “What will happen if you
  don’t deal with this problem?”questions.


• The most powerful of all questions,
  these ask about the implications of
  not solving the problems identified.


• These questions are about the
  effects or consequences of the
  client’s problems.


• Put bluntly, these questions induce
  pain by having the others
  themselves point out the negative
  consequences of not solving the
  problem, thus creating a strong
  need to solve the problem.

❑ Successful persuaders do ask these

questions, but use them economically.

❑ These questions are not highly

correlated with persuasiveness.

❑ The more senior the manager, the

less he or she likes answering these

questions.

❑ Problem questions are effective to

the degree your products or services

provide a solution to a client’s

problem.

❑ It is helpful to think less of

solutions than the business

problems that are solved by your

solutions.

❑ For new leaders, these questions

can help you become more

effective quickly.

❑ The most persuasive leaders

introduce solutions late in the

discussion, after questions about

the situation and problems.

Type of question What they are Comments/tips