My first job after college was working as an undercover detective for 5 years. Little did I know at the time that the principles I learned working undercover would still be the fundamental underpinnings of what I teach salespeople to this day.
At the time I knew nothing about the Limbic System, Reticular Activating System, or any of the physiological reasons behind my primary tactic for “selling myself” in an undercover role. All I knew was that if I could get people to like me, they eventually trusted me and that led to success as an undercover detective.
How did I get complete strangers who were often quite suspicious of people they didn’t know to like and trust me? I let them talk about themselves.
When working undercover the last thing you want to do is talk about yourself because you have a “cover” or “legend” that is a mile wide and an inch deep. Talking too much about yourself is how people get killed in that job!
I quickly learned that if I could find something of interest to the subject and keep them talking about it, for some mysterious reason, they really seemed to like me. What was even more amazing to me at the time was that when they later introduced me to their associates, they assigned tremendous traits to me that they assumed simply because I was interested and listened to them.
One of the reasons I chose to align myself with Sandler Training was something called the 70/30 rule. The rule is that a prospect should be talking 70% of time and the seller only 30%. To some sellers I know that seems a bit crazy but to an ex-detective it is music to my ears.
I now understand and teach the psychology and physiology behind why this tactic is so effective, but I already knew it worked.
So, take it from me, if you want to be the most interesting person in any room, become the most interested person in any room!
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