Most salespeople are asking the same question their competitors ask, in the same order, with the same second word. Prospects feel the pattern before they can name it. Understanding why it happens — and what to do instead — is one of the fastest ways to change the quality of your conversations.
The 70 Percent Problem Nobody Talks About
Not long ago, we were running a training session with one of our clients, working through a portion of our NeuroQuestioning Program. The program helps sales professionals understand how the brain reacts to specific question types. One exercise we run with every team: write down three to five default questions you use in every prospect or client interaction.
The results were completely predictable. They always are.
It's not a fluke. After years of gathering data from professionals across multiple industries and enterprise organizations, the pattern holds. In some sessions, nearly the entire class writes five questions that all start with "What." One or two people break the pattern. Everyone else is running the same script.
Why "What" Questions Dominate Every Sales Conversation
The question worth asking is: why? Why does nearly every sales professional default to "What" when given complete freedom to ask anything?
The answer lives in how the brain is wired. "What" questions are the most self-preservation-focused of all interrogative words. They're designed to give you the information you want, the way you want it, about the things you think you need to know. In action-oriented, self-preservation-driven cultures, that makes "What" feel natural because it maps directly to how people instinctively process the world.
Consider the mental loop "What" questions address:
- What just happened?
- What is happening now?
- What will happen next?
- What can I do to be involved?
- What is this going to get me?
That's not a sales framework. That's the brain in survival mode. And most of us have been asking questions from that place for so long it feels like good salesmanship. It isn't.
What "What" Questions Are Actually Good For
Before going further, it's worth being precise: there is nothing intrinsically wrong with "What" questions. The problem isn't the word. The problem is that it has become the default regardless of what you're trying to accomplish.
Each interrogative word solves for something different. "Why" probes motivation. "How" explores process and mechanism. "Who" identifies stakeholders and accountability. "When" establishes timing and urgency. "What" establishes action or identifies an object of focus.
If your goal is to understand an action, clarify a behavior, or identify a specific thing, then "What" is a strong choice. The issue is using it when a different interrogative would generate more useful information, more trust, and a better conversation. That requires knowing what each question type actually does.
The Second Word Matters as Much as the First
When salespeople do ask "What" questions, the word that follows determines what the question is actually doing. Three second words show up repeatedly in client conversations: "are," "can," and "do." Each of them changes the direction and intent of the question in ways most sellers never consciously consider.
Understanding the distinction between these three patterns is where the real leverage is. It's not just about picking a different interrogative opener. It's about being intentional with where the question points.
"What Are" — Directing Attention to Others' Actions
When you follow "What" with "are," the question typically focuses on what someone else is doing, thinking, or involved in. The attention goes outward, toward others and their activity.
Examples from real sales conversations:
- "What are you doing to fix that problem?"
- "What are the directors focusing on this week?"
- "What are the teams working on right now?"
These questions can work well when you genuinely need to understand the current state of a buyer's world. They become a problem when they're overused, because they put the buyer in report mode rather than reflection mode. The buyer is reciting facts rather than thinking through implications.
"What Can" — Pointing the Action Back at Yourself
When "What" is followed by "can," the question typically turns inward. It directs the action toward you, your team, or your organization. The implicit message is: we want to contribute.
Common examples:
- "What can I do for you?"
- "What can we provide to help make the decision?"
- "What can the team produce to help clarify the problem?"
These questions are often well-intentioned but carry a risk. They signal eagerness to serve before fully understanding what the client actually needs. In some contexts, they come across as a pre-emptive offer to do work before the buyer has finished describing the problem. The timing matters as much as the phrasing.
"What Do" — Surfacing What the Client Needs from You
When "What" precedes "do," the question typically highlights an action your team needs to take based on the client's situation. It can be client-facing or internally focused, but it's oriented around a gap or a need.
Common examples:
- "What do you need from us?"
- "What do we have that would help you?"
- "What do our current clients not have access to that would make this easier?"
Of the three, "What do" questions are often the most useful in a discovery context. They're implicitly about gaps and needs, which is where real conversations about value happen. The downside is they can feel presumptuous if asked before the buyer has walked you through their situation.
The Real Question Is What You're Trying to Accomplish
Questioning is ultimately about solving and learning. The most effective salespeople don't have a favorite interrogative word. They have a clear sense of what they need to understand at each stage of a conversation, and they pick the question type that unlocks that understanding most efficiently.
That requires breaking out of the default. It means noticing that your top five go-to questions all start with "What." It means asking whether a "Why" or "How" question would generate more useful information right now. It means thinking about the second word, not just the first.
Braintrust's NeuroQuestioning Program is built around exactly this kind of precision. If you've ever lost a deal and wondered whether the conversation could have gone differently, the answer is probably yes. And the place to start looking is at the questions you defaulted to.
Worth a conversation? Reach out to the Braintrust team to learn what the NeuroSelling framework looks like for your sales organization.
