Everyone would agree the critical factor in a successful sales call is being able to ask good questions. Asking good questions is a lot harder that it seems. However, asking questions that logically and efficiently uncover important information about a customers needs and doing it in a way that is comfortable, even informative, for the customer is a true differentiator. Good questions are: Earned, Relevant, Customer-oriented and Informed. Set up time in advance of a sales call to design questions which meet this standard. And by all means, really listen to what the customer has to say. It is very tempting to start thinking about the next question you are going to ask rather than devoting your full attention to actively listening to the response.