100 Probing Questions to Uncover Prospect’s Core Needs

Knowing how to ask probing questions while attempting to absorb new knowledge is an important skill that may aid the process of sales.

Probing questions are designed to expand the knowledge and understanding of the person who asks the question and the person who answers it.

The questions, as well as the answers, provide depth and insight. So put them to good use.

Continue reading to learn more.

What Are Probing Questions?

Probing questions are designed to encourage in-depth thought on a certain topic.

They are frequently open-ended questions; therefore, the answers are primarily subjective.

Probing questions are intended to extract the respondent’s opinions and sentiments regarding a particular issue while encouraging critical thinking.

10 Best Examples to Ask and Benefits

Here you will find examples of the best probing questions and advantages of each one.

1. How can we help?

This is your opportunity to ask specific questions about your prospect’s issues and how your product or service may assist in solving them.

2. Could you briefly explain your current situation?

They may guide you right to the core of their issue, allowing you to provide your perfect solution.

3. What are the problems you wish to address?

Invite the prospect to talk about the problems they need help with. After a clear picture, position your offering as part of their solution.

4. What are your objectives?

Yes, you must comprehend what irritates your prospect. However, it is as important to understand a prospective client’s future ambitions and aspirations for their company.

5. Are you looking at any other options?

You must first understand your competition to define what makes your product or service distinctive.

6. What do you think is the best-case scenario?

It could assist you in figuring out what they want to accomplish here if everything goes as planned. Is it worth it?

7. What led you to consider our product?

Ask a prospect what brought them to your product in the first place. This also helps in determining what would appeal to potential clients.

8. Have you already utilized our product?

If they are unfamiliar with your product, start with a broad sales pitch to introduce them to it.

9. What do you want to gain from today’s call?

This question may help you gauge and manage customer expectations.

10. Is there anything more I should know?

It’s a good idea to ask this last check-in question when a prospect is ready to leave.

Perhaps they failed to say anything that might be useful the next time you chat.

Probing Questions List

We will provide you with a comprehensive list of probing questions that you can use upright to assist your consumers.

1. What are your key objectives with this?

2. What do you like about your current supplier?

3. What are you using/doing now?

4. Do you have any preference with regards to the solution?

5. What three key outcomes do you want from this?

6. Can you please tell me about that?

7. Can you give me an example?

8. Can you be more specific?

9. How does this look/sound/feel to you?

10. Why are you seeking to do this work/project/engagement?

11. Do they suffer from the same problem?

12. Could you please give me some background to this?

13. Can you tell me more about the present situation/problem?

14. Tell me more about it.

15. How long have you been thinking about this?

16. Why do you think it is happening?

17. What goals and objectives do you have for this?

18. What is your biggest challenge with this?

19. Why isn’t this particular service/product/situation/issue working for you right now?

20. How long has it been an issue/problem?

21. Why do you think the issue/problem has been going on for so long?

22. How much longer can you afford to have the problem go unresolved?

23. How is it impacting your organization/customers/staff?

24. How severe is the problem?

25. When do you need the issue/problem fixed by?

26. Why have you been dealing with this for so long?

27. What bothers you the most about this situation/issue/problem?

28. What has prevented you from fixing this in the past?

29. What kind of timeframe are you working in to fix this?

30. How long have you been thinking about it?

31. Is this problem causing other problems?

32. Does your competition have these problems?

33. What is the biggest problem that you are facing with this?

34. What other problems are you experiencing?

35. What alternatives have you considered?

36. What are the intangible effects of the problem?

37. Does the issue cause problems with employee morale?

38. Does the issue cause problems that negatively affect the motivation of your staff?

39. Can this problem affect productivity?

40. Is this problem unique to your organization?

41. Is this an industry-wide problem?

42. Is it regional or geographical?

43. What is it costing you?

44. Do you know in what other areas the problem is costing you money?

45. Can you put an amount on the problem in terms of cost: Weekly, monthly, annually?

46. Can you see how much money you/your organization loses every day by not solving this issue?

47. How does the problem ultimately affect your pricing/selling costs?

48. How much does this problem cost you in man hours/time?

49. Looking at this from a point of lost sales, how much is just one sale worth to the company?

50. Does this affect other parts of the business?

51. Can you make an educated guess as to how much it costs you?

52. What kind of return or payoff will you be looking for if you get a successful resolution of the problem?

53. What are you working with at the moment?  Just a ball park…

54. How do you handle budget considerations?

55. When you went to your existing supplier and shared your frustrations about this problem, what reassurances did they give you that it wouldn’t be repeated?

56. Who is ultimately responsible for this?

57. What are the long-term effects of the problem? If you were in your competitors’ shoes, how would you take advantage of this?

58. Who else is aware of it?

59. What has made you want to look into this now?

60. What kind of timeframe are you working within?

61. Is there anything I have overlooked?

62. Have I covered everything?

63. How often do you think the problem has come up when you weren’t aware of it?

64. Do you have any questions you’d like to ask me?

65. What other factors have we not discussed that are important to you?

66. Are there any other areas I haven’t asked you about that are important?

67. What else should I know?

68. Have I asked you about every detail that’s important to you?

69. How soon would you like to move with this?

70. Does this affect other parts of the business?

71. What’s your role in this situation/issue/problem?

72. Who supports this action?

73. How did these problems/issues first come about? What were the original causes?

74. What have you done in the past to address the problem?

75. How long has it been going on?

76. What kind of pressure is this causing you and the business?

77. What options have you tried?

78. What are the long-term effects of the problem?

79. How does the problem ultimately affect your current customers?

80. How does the problem ultimately affect your prospective customers?

81. What number would you put on this issue in terms of prioritization?

82. How much more productive could your people be if the problem did not exist?

83. If you were your competition, what would you do right now?

84. If you could design the perfect solution, what would it look like, how much would you spend, and how long would it go for?

85. What sense of urgency do you have here?

86. What three key outcomes do you want from solving the problem?

87. What are your top three requirements that this solution just has to have?

88. If you could have things the way you wanted, what would it look like?

89. Do you know what your competition is thinking/planning about this?

90. How important is this need (on a scale of 1-10)?

91. What options are you currently looking at?

92. In a perfect world, what would you like to see happen with this?

93. What is your strategy to fix this problem?

94. What are you currently doing to address the problem?

95. How does the problem ultimately affect your sales teams?

96. How does the problem ultimately affect your other employees?

97. How does the problem ultimately affect your sales process?

98. How does the problem ultimately affect your reputation/goodwill/brand?

99. Do you feel this problem/issue has given your competition a competitive advantage? If so, how?

100. Who did you work with last time and why?

Types of Probing Questions

1. Open-Ended Questions

An open-ended question is one with no definitive or concise answer.

These enable prospects to provide specific experiences about their personal predicament.

2. Closed-Ended Questions

Closed-ended questions are diametrically opposed to open-ended in that they often contain predefined answers that give room for the prospect to ramble.

3. Loaded Questions

A loaded question is one that is structured in such a way that it drives the prospect to provide answers on a certain subject, providing an advantage.

4. Recall Questions

These questions push a prospect to seriously consider the mechanisms in place at their company.

5 Tips for Improving Your Probing Questions

Here you will find some techniques for improving probing questions.

1. Use the “know, feel, and do” method

Consider how the consumer feels and how we want them to feel. If we can achieve that, we will have a good understanding of how to help someone.

2. After the probing questions, ask a closed question

By asking simple “yes” or “no” questions, you may confirm your assumptions regarding the nature of the issue.

3. Consider the TED method

The term TED stands for Tell, Explain, and Describe.

These are used to ensure that the customer focuses on supplying us with the most pertinent information.

4. Avoid asking “why?”

This is because we do not want to blame consumers for the problem. That is not good customer service.

5. Incorporate empathy statements into probing questions

When you empathize with someone, they often shift from giving you the facts to telling you how they feel.

Final Thoughts

So, did you enjoy the probing questions we gave you? We definitely hope so!

To boost your chances of closing the purchase, ask customer service questions that will assist you in understanding your prospect.

Isn’t it what we’re all aiming for?

These questions are designed to help you gather the information you need from your consumers.

They will also help make your sales process more efficient for you and your prospect. Isn’t that thrilling?

If you have any relevant probing questions, please share them in the comments area below. We would appreciate hearing from you.