Grab More Market Share: How to Wrangle Business Away from Lazy Competitors

A Lesson from the Talk Show World

During my time as a network talk show and game show host, it was my job to (attempt to) create instant rapport with my guests. If I was going to get the answers to my sometimes sensitive questions, I would have to first establish some trust with that guest.

When you first get a job as a talk show host, you usually get some professional coaching on how to ask questions. The guests were often famous yet skittish celebrities I had never met. The skill I was formally taught—one that most sales professionals and customer service advocates do not learn—was to hone the art of intentional curiosity.

It is the talk show host's job to ask all of the questions. We drive the interviews, and at no time do we allow the guests to ask us any questions. It's not about the host; it is 100 percent about the guest. I'm a naturally curious dude; but even so, there was a producer, standing behind every guest's head, holding a card with 10 more questions for me to ask. It is a guaranteed way to ensure that a talk show host never runs out of questions.

Johnny Carson once said something absolutely profound—not only for talk show hosts, but for anyone in the sales or relationship professions. I asked him, “John, what qualities do you think you had that kept the public tuned in to you for 30 years?” He said, “Well, there were funnier comedians . . . and you know we didn't always get the hottest guests . . . but the one thing I always tried to keep in mind was [that] I never ...