I always stress to listen for what people are meaning and not just what they are saying. When you understand their fundamental problem, you can then fix it for them. Sometimes though, you have to listen (and not understand) a lot of ranting, however. hehe

A key part as an investor working with sellers and/or being an entrepreneur who owns your own business is to get the seller/customer to consider you on some level as a friend and not a foe. People like to talk about themselves, their lives, their experiences (and like me, many of us like to listen). When they tell us about their lives and we share a little something about ours, a small subconscious connection is made.

Yes I worked in sales a while back . . . in case you can’t tell But I really didn’t like it and had to get out. I wanted to sell my way.

I totally agree that listening to the customer (or seller) is key. I’ve had customers call up ranting about something or other, and just by letting them vent, before I know it, they’re apologizing to me for their rant, and letting me know that something someone else did, set them off. By being understanding (and listening) you do find out, what they say and what they want may be two different things.

Must be why we have two ears and one mouth.
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