Professional conversationalist like talk-show host and world-class salespeople can teach us all something about getting great information from key people. The best salespeople don’t even realize that they are repeating a proven system to gather the information. They just know after a very natural, free flowing dialogue they leave the person they were talking to feeling better about themselves and the salesperson . . . and the sales person has established strong rapport and gathered critical information. How do they do it?
The first step is to get your mind right. Set your intent to fully understand the person. Begin by giving them the benefit of doubt that they are person you like and enjoy speaking with. Next take a genuine interest in what makes them tick. When your intent is to understand you will instinctively begin to ask questions. The key is the quality of the inquiry. You reveal your intent by the questions you ask.
Begin by finding out what they are passionate about? Or simply what are their goals?
Once you understand their goal, how do they measure their success against the goal? Next, how are they doing in pursuit of it? Are they on track? If so, what was the key? And if not, what’s the problem and how do they intend on fixing it.
People want to feel understood. By focusing on another’s passion, their goal, they feel understood. When your intent is to find out someone’s goal & you are keenly interested in how they are progressing . . . you will engage in riveting conversations.
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