If you're always talking, you're not learning. And if you're not learning, you're not negotiating.
The buyer was skeptical from the start. Arms crossed. Tone cool. Questions sharp and clipped.
I answered a few of her questions. Just the essentials.
Then I stopped talking.
Ten seconds. Twenty. Thirty.
She exhaled and said: "You know what I'm really worried about?"
And out came the real issue. The hidden fear that was holding everything back.
If I had filled the air with more sales points, we would have danced around the problem instead of naming it. Silence was not a gap. It was the invitation she needed.
Silence creates space. And in that space, people reveal themselves. Their fears. Their interests. Their flexibility.
You just have to stop talking long enough to hear it.
And real listening includes proving you were present: "If I'm understanding you correctly..." is not a polite phrase. It is proof you were in the room.
Talk less. Listen deeper. Learn more.
The conversations that matter most ask more of us than words alone can provide.
If this resonated, forward it to someone who could use the reminder. We all could.
— Howard