Power Questions for a Variety of Client Challenges

 
Create  a  peer  relationship  
• Creating  reach:  What  interested  you  in  meeting  with  us  today?  
• Taking  charge  of  the  agenda:  By  way  of  describing  my  firm,  I’d  like  to  share  
some  examples  of  recent  work  we’ve  been  doing  in  the  industry.  And  then  I’d  
like  to  ask  you  to  talk  about  your  major  priorities  this  year,  such  as  X  or  Y...    
Are  there  any  particular  issues  or  questions  you’d  like  to  cover  during  our  
discussion?    
• Pushing  back:  You’ve  defined  the  solution  here  as  a  new  technology  platform,  
but  in  my  experience  there  are  several  other  important  dimensions  to  the  
problem.  Can  you  talk  a  bit  more  about  the  underlying  goals  you’re  trying  to  
achieve?  (Or,  You’d  like  to  reduce  costs  by  15%.  Is  that  aggressive  enough?)  
 
Build  rapport  
• Can  you  tell  me  about  your  own  responsibilities  here?  What  do  they  
encompass?    
• Can  you  tell  me  something  about  your  own  career  and  how  you  got  to  your  
current  role?  
• How  would  you  compare  the  experience  of  working  here  versus  at  your  old  
organization?    
• I  understand  you’ve  worked  here  for  nearly  20  years.  I’m  curious,  what  are  
some  of  the  biggest  changes  you’ve  seen  since  you  joined?  
• So  what  do  you  think  about...?  (a  current  event,  trend,  etc—e.g.,  the  new  
study  that  shows  coffee  extends  your  lifespan,  the  proposal  to  build  a  new  
subway  tunnel,  the  new  regulatory  framework  that  was  just  passed  by  
Congress,  etc.  )  
• I  saw  in  your  bio  that  you  graduated  from  Duke...my  son  is  applying—how  
was  your  time  there?    
  
• I  notice  you  spent  a  couple  of  years  at  xyz  corporation...I  actually  started  my  
career  there  in  the  late  90s.  How  did  you  find  your  time  there?  (Connect  
around  something  you  have  in  common)  
• Where  do  you  live?  Do  you  have  much  of  a  commute?    
• Did  you  grow  up  in  this  area?  Where  is  your  family  from  originally?    
 
Establish  your  credibility  
(Note:  the  specific  topics  are  purely  for  illustration  purposes—you’ll  need  to  tailor  
your  credibility-­building  questions  to  your  specific  clients)  
 
• Many  of  our  clients  in  your  industry  are  of  course  grappling  with  lower-­‐cost  
competition  from  offshore.  Some  are  dealing  with  this  by  moving  even  more  
upmarket,  whereas  others  are  outsourcing  in  a  significant  way.  What  has  
your  response  been?    
• Some  of  my  clients,  in  order  to  accelerate  growth  in  their  largest  customer  
relationships,  have  created  investment  budgets  for  individual  client  teams.  
Have  you  considered  anything  like  that?    
• How  are  you  handling  the  demands  imposed  by  the  new  regulatory  
framework?  
• I’m  curious,  how  are  dealing  with  the  challenge  of  providing  training  and  
development  opportunities  for  employees  that  are  spread  out  in  small  offices  
in  over  25  countries?    
• I  noticed  in  your  annual  report  that  you’ve  set  aside  a  reserve  to  replace  your  
legacy  billing  systems.  I’m  curious,  what  prompted  that  decision,  and  what  
are  your  plans?  
• I  read  the  transcript  of  your  CEO’s  speech  at  the  recent  industry  investors’  
conference.  I  thought  it  was  interesting  that  he  did  not  mention  the  recent  
merger  of  your  two  largest  competitors.  What’s  the  reaction  been  in  your  
organization?    

©2014 By Andrew Sobel

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• How  did  you  decide  to  divest  your  component  parts  business?    
• How  did  you  make  the  decision  to  outsource  your  customer  call  centers?    
 
Understand  their  issues  
(The  more  tailored  these  are  to  your  specific  client  and  their  industry,  the  more  
effective  they’ll  be)  
 
• How  will  you  and  your  area  be  evaluated  at  the  end  of  the  year?  What  are  the  
major  goals  you’re  being  asked  to  accomplish  by  your  leadership?  
• I  was  struck  by  your  CEO’s  speech  at  the  investors  conference,  and  his  focus  
on  creating  more  cost  flexibility  in  the  business.  What  impact  is  this  going  to  
have  in  terms  of  the  capabilities  you  need  to  develop?  
• Why  do  you  want  to  do  that?  
• What  additional  capabilities  do  you  need  to  put  into  place  to  support  your  
new  strategy?  
• Where  will  your  future  growth  come  from?  
• As  you  think  about  the  future  of  your  business,  what  are  you  most  excited  
about?  Concerned  about?  
• Deciding  to  do  X  was  a  bold  move.  I’m  curious  about  some  of  the  choices  you  
made—can  you  share  with  me  why  you  ...?  
• What  are  your  most  significant  opportunities  for  growth  over  the  next  
several  years?  
• I’m  familiar  with  the  broad  outlines  of  your  strategy...my  question  is,  how  are  
some  of  these  initiatives,  like  becoming  more  market-­‐focused  and  reducing  
your  cost  infrastructure,  affecting  your  own  particular  area?  
• What  exactly  do  you  mean  when  you  say…?  (risk-­‐averse,  dysfunctional,  
challenging  etc.)  
• What  would  your  best  customers  say  are  the  main  reasons  they  do  business  
with  you?  
• Why  do  customers  leave?  

©2014 By Andrew Sobel

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• How  have  your  customers’  expectations  changed  over  the  last  five  years?  
• What’s  the  driving  force  behind  this  particular  initiative?  (e.g.,  what  is  behind  
the  drive  to  reduce  costs,  design  a  new  organization,  etc.)?  (or,  Why  did  you  
decide  to  do  that?)  
• What  would  better  (risk  management,  cost  controls,  organizational  
effectiveness,  etc.)  look  like?  
• In  which  areas  do  you  wish  you  were  making  faster  progress?  
• This  issue  you’ve  been  talking  about—would  you  say  it’s  one  of  your  two  or  
three  biggest  priorities  this  year?    
 
Connect  to  higher-­‐level  goals  
• Why  is  that  happening?  
• Why  did  you  decide  to  do  it  that  way?  
• Why  do  you  think  this  approach  is  best  for  you?  
• What  business  goal  is  driving  this?  
 
Explore  an  identified  need  
• How  much  do  you  think  this  is  costing  you?    
• Have  you  estimated  what  it’s  worth  to  fix  this?    
• What  do  you  think  that  opportunity  is  worth?    
• How  is  this  affecting  other  aspects  of  your  business?  (How  is  this  impacting  
sales?  Costs?  Productivity?  Morale?  Etc.).  
• If  you  do  not  address  this  (problem/opportunity),  how  might  your  business  
be  impacted?  
• How  do  you  know  that…?  (turnover  is  high,  productivity  is  low,  risks  are  not  
being  well  managed,  etc.)?  
• Why  is  this  important  to  you  right  now?  
• Would  you  say  this  one  of  your  top  three  or  four  priorities?  
• How  much  time  do  you  personally  devote  to  this  issue?  

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• Can  you  give  me  an  example  of  that?  
• What  solutions  have  you  already  tried  and  how  successful  were  they?  
 
Get  to  know  them  better  and  build  a  personal  relationship    
• What's  the  most  fulfilling  part  of  your  job?  The  least  fulfilling?  
• Where  do  you  think  you’d  like  to  go  in  the  organization  from  here?  
• I'm  curious—what  has  been  the  most  important  developmental  experience  
in  your  career  so  far?  
• As  you  think  about  your  own  legacy  as  a  manager  and  leader,  what  would  
you  like  to  be  remembered  for?  
• What  do  you  feel  has  been  your  greatest  accomplishment?  
• As  you  think  about  what  you’ve  learned  in  the  course  of  your  career-­‐-­‐what  
advice  would  you  give  your  younger  self  about  how  to  succeed  
• How  did  you  get  your  start  in  this  business?  
• When  you  look  back  on  the  different  positions  you've  held/jobs  you've  had,  
what's  been  your  most  memorable  one?    
• If  you  hadn't  gone  into  (computer  science,  business,  law,  accounting,  
engineering,  etc.)  what  do  you  think  you  would  have  done?  
• Can  you  tell  me  about  where  you  grew  up?  How  did  that  influence  you?    
• Is  there  something  you've  always  wanted  to  do-­‐-­‐a  sport,  hobby,  trip-­‐-­‐that  
you've  just  never  gotten  around  to?  
• You've  had  a  very  successful  career...Is  there  anything  else  you  would  like  to  
achieve?  
 
Meet  with  top  executives  
• Challenge  them:  How  did  you  arrive  at  10%  as  a  target?  Do  you  feel  that’s  
sufficiently  ambitious?  How  would  you  describe  the  gap  between  your  
current  leadership  and  the  skills  and  capabilities  you’ll  need  in  three  years’  
time?  

©2014 By Andrew Sobel

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 • Ask  about  implementation:  How  would  you  assess  your  progress  in  creating  
a  more  client-­‐centric  culture?  What  do  you  feel  you’ve  accomplished,  and  
where  are  you  lagging?  
• Bring  in  internal  insight:  In  working  with  your  people  over  the  last  six  
months,  we’ve  observed  a  tendency  towards  risk  avoidance,  leading  to  slow  
decision  making.  Does  that  square  with  your  own  view?  What  do  you  think  is  
behind  that  behavior?  
• Ask  about  the  external  environment:  Why  do  you  think  (competitor  x)  has  
grown  so  rapidly  in  that  market?  or  Some  of  your  competitors  have  created  
virtual  customer  communities...do  you  have  any  initiatives  in  this  area?  
• Help  redefine  the  problem:  In  my  experience,  changing  the  organization  
structure  won’t  have  the  impact  on  collaboration  unless  you  also  address  
things  like  your  measurement  and  reward  system  and  your  decision  making  
process.  What  do  you  think  is  really  at  the  heart  of  the  lack  of  teamwork?  
• Ask  about  organizational  effectiveness:  How  do  you  feel  about  the  dynamics  
within  your  senior  team?  or  As  you  think  about  your  senior  team,  what  skills  
or  capabilities  do  you  wish  you  had  more  off?  or  What  do  you  think  is  holding  
people  back  from  accomplishing  this?  
• Learn  more  about  their  thinking:  What  do  you  think  your  options  are  to...  
(grow  your  European  business...reduce  your  customer  acquisition  
costs...improve  your  share  of  wallet...etc.)  
• Understand  what  makes  them  tick:  What  was  your  most  important  
developmental  experience  in  becoming  a  leader?  or  Have  you  ever  
experienced  a  setback  in  your  career?  How  did  it  affect  you?  
 
Create  a  next  step  
• Of  all  the  issues  we’ve  discussed,  it  seems  like  (name  the  issue)  is  the  most  
promising  one  for  us  to  explore  further.  What  do  you  think?    
• Would  it  be  helpful  to  you  if  we  put  some  examples  together  about  how  other  
clients  of  ours  have  approached  this  issue?  

©2014 By Andrew Sobel

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 • If  you  feel  it  would  be  useful  to  further  explore  this  issue,  who  else  in  your  
organization  should  we  talk  to  before  we  circle  back  to  you  with  some  ideas  
about  how  to  approach  it?    
• As  you  think  about  this  issue,  what  are  your  biggest,  lingering  questions?  
• Would  you  be  interested  in  seeing  an  outline  of  the  steps  we’d  recommend  to  
address  this?  
• Would  you  be  interested  in  seeing  an  outline  of  how  the  solution  we’ve  
discussed  could  address  this  issue?  
• Given  everything  we’ve  discussed,  what  do  you  feel  would  be  the  most  
productive  follow  up  to  this  conversation?    
 
Dealing  with  a  crisis  or  dissatisfaction  
• Thank  you  for  raising  this  with  me.  Can  you  share  with  me  everything  you  
know  about  the  situation?  
• Can  you  say  more  about  that?  
• What  happened  then?  
• What  has  their  reaction  been?    
• How  do  you  think  it  reached  this  point?  
• What  else  can  you  tell  me?  
• What  do  you  think  contributed  to  this?    
• In  retrospect,  from  your  perspective—what  could  we  have  done  to  prevent  
this?  
• I’m  sorry  this  happened.  Is  there  anything  we  can  do  right  now  to  help  the  
situation?  
• This  is  extraordinarily  important  to  me.  How  soon  can  we  meet  to  discuss  
this  in  person?  

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• Would  it  be  helpful  if  I  did  some  additional  fact-­‐finding,  and  then  if  we  met  
tomorrow  to  discuss  some  proposed  actions  to  address  this?  
• If  anything  else  surfaces  in  the  meantime,  can  you  let  me  know  immediately?  
• Going  forward,  what  would  you  think  of  trying  to  meet  on  a  more  regular  
basis?  This  will  help  us  stay  more  aligned,  reduce  the  chance  of  this  ever  
happening  gain,  and  give  us  a  chance  to  exchange  perspectives  on  the  work  
we’re  doing.    
 
 
 
 

©2014 By Andrew Sobel

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