I had a fascinating experience in a training session with one of our clients this week.

These were field salespeople selling technical products and services to--and managing relationships with--customers in the oil business.  Most were experienced and trained in sales at the "school of hard knocks," with a dash of sales training sprinkled throughout their career.  There were also some new salespeople--young, bright, barely shaved in comparison.

We delivered a terrific curriculum, one that was custom built for this client.  Great content and tools, real-world exercises and role plays.

My fascination?  They did not ask questions!  It was like pulling teeth.  When we coached and cajoled them into trying it, they reluctantly started to get the hang of it.  Intellectually they agreed that asking questions was a great sales tactic.  But getting the questions rolling was like the Guadalupe River near my home in Texas--it was a trickle in this year's drought.  Getting them to ask open-ended questions and subsequent follow-on probing questions was really a struggle.  Asking questions for clarification?  Impossible!

I think it was because of their technical product orientation.  "Tell 'em how it works and they might buy--it's a numbers game."  But work hard we did, and by the last role play it was the difference between night and day.  They all had 4-6 great questions on their call plans--and follow-on questions to back them up.  The works!

All it took was practice, practice, practice.  The good news is that the young and seasoned alike overwhelmingly said that these three days will change the way they approach their job every day.  It was a very rewarding outcome--but I was sweating it for a while.