At Recurve, we’ve found that every technician who performs home energy audits is also a sales person. And the first rule of sales is, “When you’re talking, you’re not selling.” In other words, if you’re not a good listener, you won’t truly understand your customer’s needs and concerns.

When I first started at Recurve, I was so excited about building science that I couldn’t contain my enthusiasm. I found myself talking nonstop to customers about some pretty technical stuff—like the complex physics behind duct leakage, or the finer points of buoyancy forces and the stack effect. But over time, I realized that all of my lecturing about building science wasn’t motivating many customers to buy. It became clear to me that most customers buy retrofits to address specific problems they are experiencing with the comfort, energy efficiency or indoor air quality of their homes—not because they’re worried about pressure differentials in their heating ducts.

To accelerate sales, you need to do what I did: Stop talking at your customers and start asking more questions. And bear in mind that not all kinds of questions are equally effective. Asking open-ended questions (questions that can’t be answered with a simple “yes” or “no”) is the best way to gain trust.

Here’s an example of the kind of closed question we avoid asking our customers:

Q: Is your home uncomfortable in the winter? A: Yes

An open question goes more like this:

Q: How would you describe your comfort level during the winter? A: It’s terrible! We’re all bundled up half the time, and the house is very drafty, but we don’t like to run the heater too much because the heat doesn’t seem to stay inside anyway.

Notice that with the open-ended approach, you’ll end up gathering a great deal of information that can be used later to support your recommendations to the homeowner. “We’re going to seal up and insulate your attic. What that’s going to do is cut down on the drafts you told me you feel in the winter, and help your home hold the heat longer. You’ll be more comfortable, and you’ll save on your heating bills.”

The more you can get your customers to open up, the more you’ll learn about their real motivations. We’ve found that the majority of homeowners will tell us at the beginning of the process that they want to achieve X, and end up making a decision to buy because of Y and Z. The key to getting to these “real” motivating factors is to ask open-ended questions that will reveal more about what the customer is experiencing. We have found that linking one open-ended question to next in a natural, conversational tone builds trust—and trust leads to good relationships.

Are you listening yet?