The Wrong Questions For Beginners At Work

By: Gary Zalben
Submitted: 2007-01-17 15:32:32
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When you know a persons personality you will be able to communicate with them on a different level. You want a person to respond positively to your presentation and questions because if you ask the wrong question it is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. The right question will get a favorable response and this also applies to your immediate supervisors and managers.

There are questions that backfire. Dangerous questions, smug questions, and silly questions make you look dumb. Not all questions will make you look dumb it depends if your question is dealing with tangibles or intangibles. If they are intangibles you have the right to ask. On the other hand you can find out about tangibles on your own. Then there are asking questions at the wrong time. The questions that will make you look stupid. The typical reason for beginners asking too many questions is that they feel at loss about product knowledge or where is this product and how does it work. Here are some really irritating questions commonly asked by beginners. "This new digital camera that just came in, can you tell me how much memory it comes with, how much optical zoom, and how many mega pixels does it have?" Why are you asking me those questions when all you have to do is get out the instruction book that comes with the camera and read it. Next, go into the stock room and look for it.

Your co-workers do not want to do your work for you. Lack of initiative is not the quality for sales. When you are new at a job it is usually understood that you will ask more questions than usual to learn the day to day routine. But there has to be a limit to your questions because your co-workers will start getting annoyed if you over do it for too long.

If you can find the answer to any question you have by finding it out on your own, this is what you do to make a good impression on your co-workers and your superiors. Dangerous questions generate a bad response in most people and you can not know in advance how they will react. It is wise not to ask dangerous questions because they can trigger feelings of insufficiency, blame, rejection, and other negative connotations. Here are some examples of dangerous questions. "Why did you do this to me?" "How could you do such a thing?" It is unwise to ask a question with the word "why" in front of it especially if there is anything negative attached to it. The why can be substituted into what, how and could in most questions. You do not want your question to immediately put someone on the defensive. Your questions must be sincere and not to be misread. This goes for customers as well, as they do not walk into your store with a personality badge attached to their shirt to describe themselves.

The best questions are the smart questions. But smart questions require a thinking process so you can gain the advantage because smart questions begin before you ask the question. Smart questions are the type of questions management knows you have no way of finding out the answer on your own.

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