Nothing will stall a service call faster than you and your client staring at each other with nothing to say.

Why Questions Are Important
Questions keep your clients engaged, which involves them throughout the entire sales process. The more involvement you have with your client, the easier it will be to close the sale.

You always need to be thinking about qualifying your clients, and questions are how you do that. They will help you zoom in on what their key issues are, and reveal the right approach for resolving their challenge.

A series of well-timed questions will present more opportunities for more work. Maybe they aren't aware that the shut off valve for the kitchen sink is seized. A simple question such as “Do you have any trouble turning this shutoff?” will open the door for a small presentation on new shut off valves.

When to Ask Questions
You're a guest in someone's home, so you don't want to start sounding like you're pushing right from the start. Ease into the conversation with a little bit of rapport to help break the ice, and make your first few questions feel like part of the conversation.
The following questions are great starters when you first meet someone:

• How long have you lived in the house?
• How old is the house?

Once you're at the area of concern, then you can start asking questions related to the task at hand.

Specific Questions to Ask
You want to start out with smaller questions, which get the customer thinking about investing in your service.

“Who your referred you to us?”
You want to get this question out early in your appointment, so that you can build momentum from it. This lets the client know that most of your business comes from referrals. When you ask for a referral later on, it won't sound like it's coming out of left field. If you know the person who referred them, acknowledge that person, and any work that was done.

“Are you currently a service agreement client?”
Ideally, you should know the answer to this, but we'll use it to keep our clients mentally engaged. Once again, you want to bring this question up as early as possible. Don't treat the agreement plan like it's an afterthought. If they're not an agreement plan client, provide them with the information early on.

“How long have you been facing this challenge?”
You want to gauge how long the problem has been active, so that you can determine how much secondary damage there might be.

“How old are the pipes/drains/hot water tank/etc.”
Knowing the approximate age, you can decide whether it's better to do a complete replacement, or repair the damage. A kitchen faucet less than 6 months old can normally be repaired. 10 years old, and the client should consider changing it out.

“What repairs have been done in the past?”
This question will help you establish an ongoing problem, or an isolated incident. If it's ongoing, make sure you look at any contributing factors which previous contractors may have missed.