Great questions and great interviews don’t just happen. Getting people to talk about themselves, their businesses, experiences or passions takes research, planning and finesse.

Over the years, I’ve cultivated a number of interview strategies, and I recently shared a few of them with fellow freelancer and writing blogger Susan Johnston for her post on the subject, which you can read here.

Susan’s questions made me sit down and think about all of the different ways I prepare for interviews, and how I get people to talk.

Here are some of my other secrets for getting sources to open up about almost anything:

1. Do your homework. Before an interview that’s pivotal to a story, I’ll do as much background research and reporting as possible so I go in armed and ready. I feel a lot more comfortable in potentially confrontational situations when I know I have back up for any hard questions I might be asking. I usually save these kinds of interviews for the absolute end of my reporting process.

2. Prep your interview subject (up to a point). I interview a lot of busy executives, including CEOs, so I often send a bullet list of subjects I want to cover ahead of time. The source or their public relations representative can use it to know what to prep for – which is good for me so I don’t have to sit through 15 minutes of hearing their company spiel before getting to the stuff I want to know about. However, sending them a list of questions doesn’t mean I don’t ask anything else – I always do – not that I tell them that.

3. Forget transcription services. I’ve never understood why freelancers use transcription services. I’d rather take my own notes, thank you very much. I do a lot of phone interviews and I write a lot on deadline, so I type notes while I’m interviewing someone. I’m fast – I credit years of piano lessons for that – and don’t worry if things aren’t spelled right. If I need to, I’ll go over my notes after an interview and clean them up. When I do in-person interviews I always take hand-written notes – never trust an interview solely to a recording device – and depending on the situation I may or may not using a recorder.

4. Make your subject feel comfortable. Before an interview I’ll engage in a bit of small talk that I base on something the source and I might in common – living in the same city, having kids the same age, having attended the same conferences at some point. That’s not appropriate in every situation, but in some cases it helps to make them more comfortable with me and maybe even forget that they’re talking to a reporter so they’ll open up a little more. If I’ve interviewed someone before, I’ll mention it; if their company or organization’s been in the news I’ll mention it. If their city’s sports team just was in the news I’ll mention it. Whatever it takes – I’m not shy.

5. Ask the hard questions. This is the most important point of all. Think about what your readers or editor – or mother – would want to know, and ask that question. Why go to all of the trouble to arrange to talk to this person and then not ask the questions that people are dying to know the answers to, even if they’re really, really difficult to ask. I’ve asked an Orange County, Calif., couple that spent one Thanksgiving in the hospital praying over their gravely ill only child what they were thankful for that holiday. I’ve asked boiler room operators how they could take millions of dollars from retirees. I’ve asked Suzy Welch if writing a book was her declaration of independence from her more-famous husband and former GE chairman Jack. You gotta ask the hard questions.

Here are other posts I’ve done on interviews and interviewing techniques:

• Back to writing basics: the quote
• Prep work is key to conducting good phone interviews
• Keep sources on the subject in short phone interviews
• Asking the hard questions: top 10 interview tips

I recently interviewed a management guru who’s a rock star in corporate circles, makes a mint from training sessions and has several best-selling business books under his belt.

Want to know what he did at the end of the 60 minutes we spent on the phone? He thanked me for reading his books before we talked. It seems that despite his fame and glory, he gets interviewed all the time by reporters who don’t bother to find out the first thing about what he does before turning on their tape recorders. That’s like a music writer talking to Chris Martin without listening to a single Coldplay song.

And we wonder why people don’t respect writers.

Not adequately prepping for a big interview is one of the cardinal sins of journalism. True, if you’re racing to a crime scene or get dragged onto a story at the last minute there’s not much time for research.

But more often than not, there’s time to do at least a cursory search on your subject. And if it’s a story that you pitched to a magazine or Website you have no excuse for not doing your homework before dialing Mr. or Ms. Big.

What should that homework consist of? Here’s my checklist of 12 things to do to ace a VIP interview:

1. Read the book. Need I say more?

2. Read what other people have written. That includes whatever you can get your hands on about your interview subject’s work, company, book or whatever other aspect of their life you’re writing about. Information is power. Soak up as much as possible so you’re comfortable with the subject matter and so you know what the heck Mr. Big is talking about.

3. Write your questions ahead of time. There’s nothing worse than getting tongue tied because you’re nervous, or forgetting to ask the most important question. Need help? Ask your editor for input.

4. Get your numbers straight. Just this week I almost missed an interview because I thought the subject was calling me and she thought I was calling her (the PR rep got her wires crossed). Work out the logistics ahead of time so you can spend the final minutes leading up to an interview mentally going over what you’ll say, not frantically looking for a phone number or street address.

5. Be on time. Show up late for an interview and you’ve already pissed off the person you were hoping would open up to you. Ain’t gonna happen now.

6. Take good notes. A voice recorder is a beautiful thing, especially the digital kind that plug into a conmputer’s USB port. But machines break, batteries die, stuff happens. So back yourself up with typed or handwritten notes. Yes, it’s old school, but it works.

7. Be polite. At least at first. Good manners go far in this business. And if it turns out to be a confrontational interview, you can always switch to bad cop mode.

8. Play devil’s advocate. Afraid to ask probing questions? Couch it in a non-threatening phrase like “Skeptics say…” or “There are people who say that you…” or “Let’s say for the sake of argument I don’t buy your opinion of (XYZ subject). Convince me.”

9. Keep track of the time. Heads will roll – namely yours – if you hang up before asking your editor’s pet question. Skip some questions if you have to, you can always follow up on the middling stuff with your VIP’s publicist, secretary or marketing chief.

10. Ask for more. Ms. VIP may have said she only has 15 minutes, but as you get close to being done, ask for more time anyway. If things are going well, she may oblige you by answering another question or two. And if not? There’s no harm in trying.

11. Ask what to ask. My go-to last question is always the same: “Is there anything else you’d like to say?” It gives your VIP the opportunity to mention something else that’s on their mind that could lead your story in a whole new direction. Or not. But you’ll never know if you don’t ask.

12. Say thank you. They didn’t have to talk to you, but they did. So even if they weren’t forthcoming or even if they didn’t say anything you didn’t already know, thank them anyway. You never know when you might need to talk to Mr. or Ms. VIP again.

Want to know what he did at the end of the 60 minutes we spent on the phone? He thanked me for reading his books before we talked. It seems that despite his fame and glory, he gets interviewed all the time by reporters who don’t bother to find out the first thing about what he does before turning on their tape recorders. That’s like a music writer talking to Chris Martin without listening to a single Coldplay song.

And we wonder why people don’t respect writers.

Not adequately prepping for a big interview is one of the cardinal sins of journalism. True, if you’re racing to a crime scene or get dragged onto a story at the last minute there’s not much time for research.

But more often than not, there’s time to do at least a cursory search on your subject. And if it’s a story that you pitched to a magazine or Website you have no excuse for not doing your homework before dialing Mr. or Ms. Big.

What should that homework consist of? Here’s my checklist of 12 things to do to ace a VIP interview:

1. Read the book. Need I say more?

2. Read what other people have written. That includes whatever you can get your hands on about your interview subject’s work, company, book or whatever other aspect of their life you’re writing about. Information is power. Soak up as much as possible so you’re comfortable with the subject matter and so you know what the heck Mr. Big is talking about.

3. Write your questions ahead of time. There’s nothing worse than getting tongue tied because you’re nervous, or forgetting to ask the most important question. Need help? Ask your editor for input.

4. Get your numbers straight. Just this week I almost missed an interview because I thought the subject was calling me and she thought I was calling her (the PR rep got her wires crossed). Work out the logistics ahead of time so you can spend the final minutes leading up to an interview mentally going over what you’ll say, not frantically looking for a phone number or street address.

5. Be on time. Show up late for an interview and you’ve already pissed off the person you were hoping would open up to you. Ain’t gonna happen now.

6. Take good notes. A voice recorder is a beautiful thing, especially the digital kind that plug into a conmputer’s USB port. But machines break, batteries die, stuff happens. So back yourself up with typed or handwritten notes. Yes, it’s old school, but it works.

7. Be polite. At least at first. Good manners go far in this business. And if it turns out to be a confrontational interview, you can always switch to bad cop mode.

8. Play devil’s advocate. Afraid to ask probing questions? Couch it in a non-threatening phrase like “Skeptics say…” or “There are people who say that you…” or “Let’s say for the sake of argument I don’t buy your opinion of (XYZ subject). Convince me.”

9. Keep track of the time. Heads will roll – namely yours – if you hang up before asking your editor’s pet question. Skip some questions if you have to, you can always follow up on the middling stuff with your VIP’s publicist, secretary or marketing chief.

10. Ask for more. Ms. VIP may have said she only has 15 minutes, but as you get close to being done, ask for more time anyway. If things are going well, she may oblige you by answering another question or two. And if not? There’s no harm in trying.

11. Ask what to ask. My go-to last question is always the same: “Is there anything else you’d like to say?” It gives your VIP the opportunity to mention something else that’s on their mind that could lead your story in a whole new direction. Or not. But you’ll never know if you don’t ask.

12. Say thank you. They didn’t have to talk to you, but they did. So even if they weren’t forthcoming or even if they didn’t say anything you didn’t already know, thank them anyway. You never know when you might need to talk to Mr. or Ms. VIP again.