Inclination
Inclination refers to the tone of a question. Many questions are delivered with a certain tone of positive hopefulness, because you are hoping for a positive response. However, hopeful questions are more likely to generate cautious, incomplete, diplomatic, and less accurate responses.
The quality and accuracy of information received is a direct function of the type of question asked. The risk of failure and the possibility of hearing bad news from the client makes asking the hard questions very difficult.
Rather than proper probing, you probe for positive information by asking questions in a positive tone, hoping to avoid an unfavorable response.
The following are all positively inclined Questions:
- “Are you happy with the service I have provided you thus far?
- ”Are you as excited as we are about moving in this direction?”
Clients prefer to make an excuse then be the bearer of bad news. It’s valuable to know when things go well, but critical to know when things go wrong.
Clients are reluctant to respond, because they do not want to say something that would jeopardize themselves or be detrimental to the relationship.
You can only effectively manage the process when the client recognizes potential problems and issues as they arise. The easiest would be to ask the client for an updated status.
Neutralizing the Inclination of questions is important and easy. Simply offer the client a choice to respond either positively or negatively. This invites them to share the whole story with you, like:
- “Mr/Ms client are we still in good shape to close the deal by the end of the month, or do you think something might cause it to be delayed?”
- “ Mr/Ms client would it be possible to meet later this week or would that put a burden on your schedule?”
- “Would it be OK for me to take a week’s vacation during the holidays or NOT?”
