Many people think that to be good at sales you need to have “the gift of gab”, i.e. be able to talk and present well; generally be affable. This is important but I realized a while back that even more important was the ability to be a great listener. As my boss, Brian Halligan so succinctly put it “we have two ears and one mouth for a reason.” However, I learned a couple weeks ago that even great listening skills is not what separates average sales people from great sales people. The key is asking the right questions to lead the conversation where you want it to go. And this is the skill I’ve been working on with my coach, Rick Roberge, the last couple weeks.
