"They say a good lawyer never asks a question to which he doesn’t know the answer," says Stephan Schiffman in his book, Sales Presentation Techniques (That Really Work!) (Adams Media, 2007). "It works the same way as a salesperson. When framing questions, consider what the answers might be."

Asking questions should be a part of any successful client presentation, but like everything else, there’s a right way and a wrong way. Good questioning helps you to gather information and engage the prospect; bad questioning can end your presentation.

The first rule of thumb is to ask open-end questions, says Schiffman. Asking closed-end questions such as, "Are you happy with your current vendor?" can shut down your presentation right then and there. What if they answered, "yes"?

The question to ask in this case would be, "What would you like to change about the service you are currently receiving?" Schiffman also says that, "in general, it’s never a good idea to ask, ‘Are you in charge of…?’ One reason is that a ‘no’ answer might lead exactly nowhere."

Here are some other question rules from Schiffman:

Ask intelligent questions; the author provides these examples:
What have you done in the past to handle a situation or problem like this?
What made you decide to make this a priority right now?
What kind of new customers are you trying to attract?
How do you maintain a competitive edge in this industry?
What’s on the horizon for your company/department/team this month/quarter/year?

Listen and respond appropriately with questions such as:
Just out of curiosity, whom else are you talking to? Why them?
Have you ever bought a product/service like ours before? How did you make that decision?

Ask "fits-all-situations" questions if you get stumped during a presentation, such as:
Why did you do it that way?
How are you planning on making that happen?
How did you make that decision?
What are you doing now? What did you do in the past?
What do you plan to do in the future?

"Always remember that there has to be a method to your questioning," says Schiffman. "It isn’t random. It is intended to get you to the next step."