Business Insight Zone

“There’s no such thing as a dumb question.” You’ve surely heard this a thousand times. But it’s not true — or, at least, it’s not always true.

In the classroom

If the professor is explaining a new concept in class and you don’t get it, you raise you hand and ask, “But how does that work?” or “How does that relate to what we studied before about XYZ?” The professor explains — possibly grateful for a question that revealed a lack of clarity in the original explanation — and everyone benefits.

But I’ve also sat through plenty of dumb questions on other material that did nothing but reveal a lack of preparation on the student’s part. The tipoff: the professor’s answer starts with “Well, that was covered in the chapter you were assigned to read . . . ”

In business

If I’m a salesman on the phone with a prospect, there are a lot of open-ended questions I can ask that will be welcome. Possible examples:

• “So what are some of the specific problems you’re running into there?”
• “How has that been working for you?”
• “What if we could set up something to cover those bases, but tailor it more to your needs?”
• “What do you need that you aren’t getting?”

(Please add your own questions — or critique these — in the comments.)

But there are quite a few questions that won’t be welcome in that same sales call:

• “What line of work are you in?” (Because I should know that before I pick up the phone.)
• “What are the key regulations that affect your industry?” (Ditto.)
• “What are some of your biggest cost centers?” (Ditto.)

The moral of the story

The professor has a right to be peeved when a student wastes the class’s time by asking questions about straightforward material that’s covered in the textbook. In other words, the professor has a right to expect the students to do their homework.

The prospect on the phone has a right to be peeved when a salesperson wastes time by asking questions that could be answered before the call by a little bit of homework.

Is all of this an endorsement for the kind of business information Hoover’s provides? Sure — but it’s also common sense.

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(Hat tip to Seth Godin for inspiring a rant on a long-time peeve of mine.)

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Photo by Cesar Bojorquez, used under a Creative Commons license.

Category: Business information, The language of business