16LISTEN BEFORE YOU TALK

In the four decades that I’ve been in sales (has it really been that long?) I’ve evolved a set of rules. This isn’t because I’m especially brilliant or intuitive. In fact, for the first several years I was selling, I did things that, looking back on them now, make me shudder.

In particular, I remember going into a presentation to a new client. She was an older woman—well, I was younger then, so she seemed older to me—and with the arrogance of youth, I suspected that she was a bit out of touch with how things worked in the industry.

I’d filled my briefcase with materials, and I was very proud of them. I’d spent hours preparing them, researching the company and studying exactly what it did. I knew its latest stock price ...

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