82 Open Ended Sales Questions (Ultimate Guide Included)

photo of a sales rep with many questions

Did you know that asking questions makes it more likely for customers to approve of you? It’s true. Research conducted at Harvard University suggests asking questions improves liking and learning.

Open ended sales questions are a crucial aspect of the sales process. They allow salespeople such as yourself to better understand the customer’s needs, goals, and challenges. This leads to higher levels of trust and rapport, and ultimately more closed deals.

In this article, we’ll review the 12 types of open ended questions to ask, when to ask them, and other emerging best practices.

Additionally, we’ll cover some of the common mistakes to avoid when asking open ended sales questions.

With the information in this blog, you’ll have a better understanding of how to effectively use open ended questions to drive your sales success (especially if you’re in field sales).

Let’s get started (or fast forward using the table of contents below)!

Free Download: Sales Question Bank & Playbook [sales funnel chart included!]

What are open ended sales questions?

Open ended sales questions are questions that cannot be answered with a simple “yes” or “no”. They force the customer to think and respond with an insightful answer. This is why open ended questions are great for gathering information and understanding the needs, wants, and pain points of a customer.

Here are the five most popular open ended sales questions we use at Veloxy:

  1. How’ve you been?
  2. What’s the biggest headache you’re facing right now?
  3. So tell me, what do you like about the [current solution] you’re using? (after agreeing with them, move to #4)
  4. And what don’t you like about the [current solution], and how does it impact you? (after helping them dive deeper, move to #5)
  5. If you could design this [current solution] yourself, what would that look like?

Kudos to Jordan Belfort for the last three questions.

What's the difference between open ended and close ended questions?

Close ended questions are questions that can be answered with a “yes” or “no,” or with a specific piece of information. They usually sound like “Should we schedule 15 minutes?” or “What is your current CRM?”

On the other hand, open-ended questions encourage dialogue and gather in-depth information about a person’s thoughts, feelings, or experiences. Open-ended questions usually start with phrases like “How do you feel about…,” or “What do you think about…”.

In general, close ended questions are best for gathering clear, straightforward information, while open ended questions are better for exploring a topic in more detail and building rapport with the person you’re speaking with.

graphic of close ended questions

Five examples of close ended sales questions

  1. Have you used a similar [product/service] before?
  2. Are you interested in purchasing this [product/service] in the near future?
  3. On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this [product/service] to a friend?
  4. Have you budgeted for this purchase?
  5. Have you received a quote from any other vendors?
As you can see, close ended questions do not encourage quality dialogue. Rather, they’re best for chronological sequences of information gathering.

Why should you ask open ended sales questions?

There is an endless debate on which question type is better. While close ended questions give you faster and direct results, open ended questions deliver richer and more valuable insights.

Here are the top five reasons you should ask more open ended questions:

1. Better understand customer needs and pain points

If you were to ask ten prospects, “Do you wish you could improve the productivity of your team by two or three times?”, you’d likely get ten yeses. Unfortunately, a “yes” does not help you better qualify a customer.

On the other hand, if you were to ask ten prospects, “What do you think is preventing your team from doubling their productivity?”, you’d get answers that are uniquely insightful to each account.

"Your customers have a lot on their mind. What's top of mind is not always the pain point that you're capable of solving. Always lead with an open ended question that will generate curiosity. It won't kill the cat. Rather, it will create a rabbit hole of a sales conversation."
samir majumdar
Samir Majumdar
Cofounder, Veloxy

2. Build stronger rapport and trust

Salesforce recently shared that buyer expectations have been rising for the past four years. Customers want salespeople to act as trusted advisors, nurturing a positive and reciprocal buyer-seller relationship.

Customers who have a poor buyer experience have noticed that close ended questions dominate correspondence with salespeople. The only way you’re going to build stronger rapport and trust with buyers is if you demonstrate genuine interest in improving their life. Consistently asking relevant and timely open ended questions will get you there.

3. Gather in-depth information

Have you ever looked at someone’s dating profile? It’s the answers to open ended questions that peak the interest of bachelors and bachelorettes.

The same is true in sales. If your CRM records are dominated by close ended data, you’re likely losing out on a lot of pipeline and closed deals. Collaborate with marketing on a progressive profiling initiative. By tracking customer website visits and incorporating open ended questions in forms, you’re one step closer to having a biography of your customers in your CRM.

photo of a sales rep holding a question mark

4. Avoid current and future objections

Go back up to the top of this blog post and review Jordan Belfort’s three-step open ended sales sequence.

Not only do those answers give you rich insight, but they also tell you about your customer’s past and current state, and what their ideal future state looks like. If your sales team doesn’t have one already, take the lead and work with them to develop a chronological series of open ended questions for each step of the buyers journey.

5. Improve chances of closing the sale

Have you ever had a salesperson send you a birthday card? It may seem small, but it’s the thought that counts. The same is true with open ended sales data.

Buyers know that you have dozens of clients, not to mention hundreds or thousands of prospects and leads. When you reach out with a question that references a conversation from six to twelve months ago, those “You remembered!” moments go a long way to close more deals.

12 types of open ended sales questions (and examples)

Not all open ended questions are created equal. Some are best suited for prospects, while others are suited for legacy clients. Whatever your need is, be sure to reference the below directory of 82 open ended sales questions:

  1. Pain Point Questions
  2. Benefit Focused Questions
  3. Decision Making Questions
  4. Opportunity Focused Questions
  5. Objection Handling Questions
  6. Discovery Based Questions
  7. Solution Focused Questions
  8. Role Focused Questions
  9. Need Focused Questions
  10. Goal Focused Questions
  11. Performance Focused Questions
  12. History Focused Questions