Andrew Sobel - Power Questions: Build Relationships, Win New Business, and Influence Others

Contents

Praise for Power Questions

We all strive to create genuine human connection with clients, friends, and family. Power Question s is a tremendous, practical guide to constructing and using the powerful questions that help you do this. Read it now, take it in deeply, put it into practice, and it will transform your conversations and perhaps your life.

Steve Thomas,
President of Global Sales, Experian

What did FDR, Socrates, Shakespeare, and Jesus have in common? According to Sobel and Panas, they all knew how to ask power questions. Read this book and you will too!

Marshall Goldsmith,
Author of the New York Times best-sellers MOJO and What Got
You Here Won't Get You There

Power Questions is a fresh, incisive, and compelling guide to achieving success in our personal and professional relationships and activities. The book methodically maps out the route to employ carefully chosen questions that will elicit the most helpful responses and achieve the most desirable outcomes. It's a must-read!

The Honorable Joseph P. Riley,
Mayor, Charleston, South Carolina

Congratulations. The name says it all. It is a powerful book. Power Questions is a mustread for anyone who cares about customers, employees, and investors. My recommendation to everyone is to pick up a copy now and read it.

Robert L. Dilenschneider,
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman,
The Dilenschneider Group, Inc.

Power Questions provides the vital building blocks to successfully understanding the needs of your customers and clients, your spouse or child. The book describes the necessary skills needed to ask the right questions in the right way. A masterpiece. The book is compelling.

Robert Milligan,
Past Chairman, United States Chamber of Commerce
and Founder and Chair, Nature's Variety

Asking clients good questions leads to great conversations, and the result is trusted client relationships. Power Questions is a terrific read full of captivating examples. It will help readers develop deeper, more valuable relationships in both their professional and social lives.

James Bardrick,
Managing Director and Banking
CoHead for Europe, Middle East,
and Africa, Citigroup

Power Questions is an amazing book about having real power in your lifepower to solve problems while developing deep relationships with others and also a better understanding of yourself.

Cal Turner,
Former Chief Executive Officer
and Chairman of the Board,
Dollar General

Why should I care what you think until I know that you care ? I learned these words of wisdom from a very successful man. Now, Panas and Sobel answer the question, How do I show that I care? It is by asking thoughtful, powerful questions and listening carefully to the answers. You'll learn, you'll care, you'll build trust and understanding. Power Questions is outstanding.

B. Joseph White,
President Emeritus,
James F. Towey Professor of
Business and Leadership,
University of Illinois and author
of best-selling The Nature of Leadership

I found Power Questions so relevant I am making it required reading for all of my employees. Andrew and Jerry remind us of the vital importance of listening intensely. The book gives us the tools to get invaluable and rewarding information. This is a resource for life.

Aristotle Halikias,
Chief Executive Officer and
Chairman of the Board,
Republic Bank

While reading Power Questions , I made lists of hundreds of questions I can use. I've always struggled to ask good, openended, and probing questions that allow me to learn so much about another person. This book has helped me jump that hurdle. It is tremendously thought-provoking and at the same time, extremely entertaining. If you've read every other book Andrew Sobel and Jerry Panas have written, you may think they couldn't top themselvesbut they do in Power Questions .

Michelle Easton,
President, Clare Boothe
Luce Policy Institute

Power Questions is for everyonesalespeople, supervisors, development officers, and even parents. Jerry Panas and Andrew Sobel inform us how to ask the very best questions in a manner most likely to elicit an insightful answer. The authors provide hundreds of questions you wish you had asked. Power Questions will ensure your meetings and conversations are more productive than ever before. It should be required readingand it will be in my organization.

Ron Robinson,
Author, Funding Fathers

Ask yourself: Can I afford not to read Power Questions ? Andrew and Jerry's book is refreshingly different, packed full of anecdotes and advice that will give you the questions you need to engage, enquire, and elicit. Easy to read, I found plenty of new ideas to help me deepen my client relationships.

Diana BrightmoreArmour,
CEO, Corporate Banking,
Lloyds Banking Group

Your relationships will never be the same. Organized and written in a highly accessible storytelling style, Power Questions is as entertaining as it is deep, and its lessons and value are as relevant and powerful for any Fortune 500 CEO as they are for a teacher, parent, or my 14yearold son. Andrew Sobel and Jerry Panas have distilled the art of communicating down to the core skill of crafting and posing the right questions at the right timesquestions that open doors and engender the engagement necessary to build meaningful relationships and true connectivity.

Adam L. Reeder,
Managing Director and Global
Head of Building Products
and Basic Materials,
Credit Suisse First Boston

Copyright2012 by Andrew Sobel and Jerold Panas. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Limit of Liability/Disclaimer ofWarranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

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