Workshop Introduction
The Asking Questions Curriculum consists of an introduction to asking more effective questions and six role-playing exercises.
Each exercise consists of a facilitator, an individual playing the customer-facing role, and an individual acting as the customer. You should have a minimum of three people per exercise (one facilitator, two participants).
Participants when paired with a counterpart with the opposite packet become partners for that exercise. A typical workshop consists of one facilitator and ten to twenty participants. Most teams can complete the introduction and the first four exercises in less than half a day.
The facilitator and participants are each assigned individual packets. The facilitator and participant packets differ from one another in the instructions and information given.
Workshop Roles
The Facilitator introduces each exercise, coaches teams as needed, and debriefs the team upon completion of the exercise. The facilitator packet contains the instructions and information necessary to complete each of these actions. The facilitator is the only person who is given the background information unique to each participant.
The customer-facing person drives the conversation and practices asking questions. The responsibility falls on this person to ask effective questions to gather the needed information from the customer.
The customer is the person from whom the customer-facing person extracts information. Some scenarios will present small negotiation opportunities in which the customer is encouraged to leverage different questioning techniques to extract concessions from the customer-facing person.
Switching Roles
Packet A and Packet B are designed so that the customer and customer-facing roles alternate between each exercise, giving each participant an opportunity to participate in each role.
Example: the person with Packet A will play the customer for Exercise #1, the customer-facing role for Exercise #2, and so on to ensure all participants have multiple opportunities to play each role.
NOTE: Don’t get too hung up on the roles as defined in the exercises. Even if you’re a technical person and role-playing as an Account Manager, the skill of asking efficient questions and extracting information can be applied to you in the real-world.
It’s recommended that teams conduct a minimum of four exercises per workshop to build
muscle memory. By the fourth exercise, participants will find asking better questions easier.