The Secret of Asking Questions (2nd Edition)
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Summary
Simply put, this book is written specifically for salespeople, with the goal of improving their questioning skills. In any sales format, questioning is always the most important communication skill a salesperson uses when interacting with customers. Questioning helps salespeople comprehensively gather customer information, effectively improve customer relationships, accurately identify customer needs, guide customers toward placing orders and closing deals, and control the communication and negotiation dynamics with customers. Drawing on a wide range of psychological methods, this book systematically and comprehensively explains the questioning methods salespeople should master, from the function of questioning to the design of questions, and from the organization of questions to their application in various sales scenarios.
Editor's review
Compared with the 1st edition, the 2nd edition adds a large number of practical cases from business consulting, product innovation, and education, making the theoretical framework more concrete. For example, the book breaks down in detail how to break through team innovation bottlenecks by reframing problems. This shift in thinking—from "why can't we do it" to "under what conditions can we do it"—has great practical guidance value. For readers in an era of information overload, this book is more like a thinking filter: what it teaches is not how to obtain more answers, but how to ask better questions, thereby improving the quality of information processing and decision-making at the source. Reading this book requires a certain amount of patience and a habit of reflection, but the reshaping of thinking it brings is far more valuable than ordinary skill acquisition.
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Professionals who want to improve critical thinking and deep-thinking abilities
- Managers and entrepreneurs who frequently need to conduct analysis, make decisions, or do innovative work
- Team leaders committed to improving communication quality, especially those who hope to inspire team potential through questioning
- Learners interested in cognitive science and thinking methods who seek a systematic knowledge framework
Not a good fit for
- Readers expecting immediately usable script templates or quick-fix communication techniques
- Readers who lack interest in theoretical frameworks and thinking models and prefer purely narrative storytelling
Reading tips
- It is recommended to first read the first two chapters to build a systematic understanding of "questioning," then choose later case chapters for deeper reading based on one's own field of work
- Prepare a notebook while reading and try applying the "problem reframing" tool mentioned in the book to a real dilemma currently faced
- Form a reading group with colleagues or friends to practice the questioning exercises in the book with one another and experience the differences in conversational depth brought by different ways of asking questions
About the publisher
The Publishing House of Electronics Industry is a comprehensive publisher distinguished by its focus on electronic information and related fields. Judging from the more than 3,000 titles in its catalogue, its publishing covers programming and design, artificial intelligence, computer science, finance and economics, photography, and social sciences, attending both to cutting-edge technology and to general readers. Representative titles include Factor Investing: Methods and Practice, x86 Assembly Language: From Real Mode to Protected Mode, The RISC-V Reader, Artificial Intelligence: Speech Recognition, Understanding and Practice, Phased Array Radar Technology, Radar Target Characteristics, and 100 Go Mistakes and How to Avoid Them, most of which centre on technical methods and engineering practice. Its authors include Shi Chuan, Li Zhong, Wang Xiaobo, David Patterson, Andrew Waterman, and Yu Zihao, among others from China and abroad. Owing to limited public information, no further publishing features are elaborated here.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 作者简介
- 全书内容思维导图
- 内容简介
- 导读
- 第1章 销售为什么要学会提问
- 第1节 用提问进行互动，改善关系
- 第2节 用提问收集信息，挖掘需求
- 第3节 用提问控制局面，引导方向
- 第4节 用提问投石问路，试探反应
- 第5节 用提问激发好奇心，吸引关注
- 第6节 用提问获得承诺，推动交易
- 第2章 重新审视开放式问题与封闭式问题
- 第1节 开放式问题与封闭式问题的对比
- 第2节 为封闭式问题“平反”
- 第3节 让封闭式问题更加可控
- 第4节 更加巧妙的封闭式问题
- 第5节 让你的开放式问题更聚焦
- 第6节 如何用提问收集敏感信息
- 第7节 如何问“为什么”的问题
- 第3章 设计强有力的问题
- 第1节 投射提问法的妙用
- 第2节 上堆下切的提问魔力
- 第3节 提问中“陷阱”的预设
- 第4节 假设性提问的设计
- 第5节 标尺型问题
- 第6节 用好反问与设问
- 第4章 提问的控制与组织
- 第1节 提问时的结果导向思维
- 第2节 对方为什么要回答你的问题
- 第3节 影响提问效果的环境因素
- 第4节 组合问题的设计
- 第5节 提问时的布局
- 第5章 销售沟通中的提问技巧
- 第1节 销售人员提问时的常见错误
- 第2节 电话销售中的问题设计
- 第3节 门店销售中的问题设计
- 第4节 大订单销售中的SPIN问题设计
FAQ
What are the main differences between this book and the 1st edition?
Is this book suitable for workplace newcomers with no management experience at all?
Will the methods in the book seem too theoretical and difficult to apply?
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About the author
Luo Chaoping is a Chinese author known for writing on management-related topics. Public information about him is currently limited, and no clear records of his life, nationality, or educational background are available. Judging from the two works in the collection—The Secret of Asking Questions and its second edition—his writing centers on questioning as a core skill in communication and management, exploring how effective questioning can improve the quality of interaction and work efficiency. Such topics are closely tied to workplace practice and emphasize methodology and applicability, making them suitable for readers who wish to improve their communication style and problem-solving abilities. The release of the second edition suggests that the book has attracted some attention among relevant readers and that the author has revised and refined its content. Overall, Luo Chaoping's works focus on specific skills in management practice, adopt a practical style, and stress turning questioning techniques into methods that can be readily applied, giving them a certain practical value among popular management books.
