Ask Better Questions, Get Better Evidence, Perform Better Audits

Internal auditors do not uncover the facts simply by reviewing documents and completing audit programs. They uncover the facts by asking intelligent questions, listening carefully, challenging incomplete answers and following the evidence wherever it leads.

That is the practical focus of Corporate Compliance Seminars’ four-CPE webinar, Ask, Get, Perform for the Auditor.

The course helps auditors improve the communication, interviewing and leadership skills needed to conduct more effective audits and increase internal audit’s influence throughout the organization.

Strong Audits Begin With Strong Questions

An auditor may understand accounting, cybersecurity, internal controls and risk management but still conduct an ineffective interview.

Poorly structured questions can produce:

• Incomplete answers

• Defensive reactions

• Misunderstandings

• Unsupported conclusions

• Unnecessary conflict

• Missed fraud and control risks

Effective questioning is not casual conversation. It is a disciplined audit technique.

Auditors must know what to ask, when to ask it, how to phrase the question and when an answer requires further investigation. They must also distinguish between facts, opinions, assumptions, explanations and excuses.

The goal is not merely to obtain an answer. The goal is to obtain reliable information that can be evaluated against other audit evidence.

The Ask–Get–Perform Approach

The course centers on three connected actions.

Ask

Auditors must ask relevant, focused and properly sequenced questions. Effective questions help establish the facts, identify control weaknesses and expose inconsistencies.

The auditor should understand:

• The five elements of an effective audit question

• When to use open-ended and closed-ended questions

• How to ask follow-up questions

• How to avoid leading the interviewee

• How to question senior management professionally

• How to recognize vague or evasive responses

Get

Getting information requires more than asking a question. The auditor must listen, observe and determine whether the response is complete and credible.

An answer should be tested against:

• Policies and procedures

• Transaction records

• System data

• Emails and other communications

• Prior explanations

• Control documentation

• Statements from other employees

If the answer conflicts with the evidence, the auditor must continue asking questions.

Perform

Information has little value unless it improves audit performance. The auditor must convert interview results into sound conclusions, supported findings and workable corrective actions.

The ultimate objective is a better audit—one that identifies the real condition, determines the cause, explains the consequences and produces recommendations management can implement.

Using S.P.I.N. Selling During Audit Fieldwork

One of the course’s most valuable features is its application of the S.P.I.N. Selling methodology to internal auditing.

S.P.I.N. stands for:

• Situation

• Problem

• Implication

• Need-Payoff

Although originally developed as a sales-questioning method, S.P.I.N. provides auditors with a structured way to conduct interviews and guide discussions.

Situation Questions

Situation questions establish how the process currently operates.

Examples include:

• Who performs the control?

• How frequently is it performed?

• What system produces the report?

• Who reviews and approves the transaction?

• What documentation is retained?

Auditors should obtain enough background information to understand the process without spending the entire interview collecting information that was already available elsewhere.

Problem Questions

Problem questions identify weaknesses, delays, errors and unresolved risks.

Examples include:

• What prevents this reconciliation from being completed on time?

• Where do processing errors most frequently occur?

• Which transactions require manual intervention?

• What happens when supporting documentation is missing?

• Have employees found ways to bypass the control?

These questions move the discussion from describing the process to identifying where it can fail.

Implication Questions

Implication questions help management understand why the problem matters.

Examples include:

• Could the delay result in an inaccurate financial report?

• What happens if unauthorized access is not removed promptly?

• Could this weakness permit duplicate or fraudulent payments?

• How would the organization respond if the backup could not be restored?

• What regulatory or reputational consequences could result?

A finding becomes more persuasive when management understands the operational, financial, compliance and reputational consequences.

Need-Payoff Questions

Need-payoff questions focus the discussion on improvement.

Examples include:

• Would automated monitoring reduce the risk?

• How would stronger documentation improve accountability?

• Would an independent review make the control more reliable?

• What resources are needed to correct the problem?

• What corrective action can management realistically complete?

This approach helps move the audit discussion away from blame and toward practical corrective action.

Avoiding Unnecessary Conflict

Internal audit must sometimes deliver information that management does not want to hear.

Conflict cannot always be avoided, but unnecessary conflict can.

The auditor should be direct without becoming hostile. Questions should focus on the process, evidence and risk—not on personal attacks.

Auditors can reduce conflict by:

• Preparing thoroughly before an interview

• Explaining the purpose of the discussion

• Listening without interrupting

• Separating facts from assumptions

• Asking for documentation

• Confirming their understanding

• Giving management an opportunity to respond

• Remaining professional when answers are defensive

• Avoiding premature conclusions

Professional skepticism does not require aggression. It requires persistence, evidence and sound judgment.

Why Soft Skills Are Hard Audit Skills

Communication is often described as a “soft skill.” That description understates its importance.

An auditor who cannot interview effectively may fail to identify the true cause of a control weakness. An auditor who cannot manage conflict may lose access to important information. An auditor who cannot explain risk may produce findings that management ignores.

Technical competence tells the auditor what to examine. Communication competence helps the auditor uncover what actually happened.

Effective internal auditors need both.

Expanding Internal Audit’s Influence

Internal audit creates value when its work leads to better decisions, stronger controls and improved performance.

That requires auditors who can:

• Build productive relationships

• Communicate with different personality types

• Ask difficult questions professionally

• Explain complicated risks clearly

• Resolve disagreements

• Present convincing audit findings

• Help management recognize the need for corrective action

• Demonstrate the value of internal audit

Influence is not the same as authority. Internal auditors frequently need to persuade people over whom they have no direct control. Better questions and clearer communication make that possible.

What Participants Will Learn

During Ask, Get, Perform for the Auditor, participants will examine:

• Techniques for better audit questioning

• Effective audit-interview practices

• The role of curiosity and active listening

• Barriers to effective communication

• The mix of technical and interpersonal audit skills

• S.P.I.N. Selling as an audit-fieldwork tool

• Conflict prevention and resolution

• Audit leadership and time-management skills

• Methods for improving internal audit’s organizational influence

• Ways to communicate the value of internal audit

The program is designed for internal auditors, audit managers, compliance professionals and other assurance personnel who want to conduct more productive interviews and deliver stronger audit results.

Attend the Live Webinar

Ask, Get, Perform for the Auditor

Available dates:

• Monday, October 5, 2026

• Monday, December 7, 2026

Private events may also be scheduled for groups of two or more attendees.

Review the complete course information and register for Ask, Get, Perform for the Auditor.

Better audits do not begin with better templates. They begin with auditors who know how to ask the right questions, obtain the facts and turn those facts into meaningful results.