If I were looking for gold, and I had a treasure map, and let's say there's a wide open field in front of me, I'd start searching, and once I found that X, that X marks the spot, I'd start to dig, right, and I dig, and I dig.
And at some point I'd have a choice. Do I continue to dig, or do I quit saying, no, I've had enough. There is no gold here. Walk away.
We've all seen the image of the person searching for golds, and they hit that critical point where they have to choose, and they say, no, they quit, and they walk away. But if they just would have dug two to three more times, boom, they would have found that gold.
Well, look, the same is true for us in sales and our relationships, in leadership, in our conversations.
We have a map, right? We're listening for that X marks the spot. Maybe the X is the hot button. Maybe it's a need, maybe it's a pain and a goal. And once we find it, we start to dig right. We're searching for that gold. Maybe it's the motivation. Maybe it's their why.
Whether we're trying to close the sale, we're trying to build a relationship where we're trying to lead them from where they are to where they want to go. Right?
Look, listening is one of the most important skills that we can master, and and often we get it wrong. Many times we listen to impress. This is just staying at the surface, digging a little here, digging a little bit there in our field is filled with these little potholes.
Or maybe we're listening to learn, right? We're digging and digging and digging and digging and but we're digging for us. And when it comes time to quit, hey, we've had enough. We're good. We move on. It's about us, not them.
But that gold, that treasure, can only be found when we listen to understand and what does that look like? And what does that feel like?
More importantly, it's simply parking in that one spot, in that one moment, and we dig, we are committed. Maybe we're asking two to three more questions out of curiosity, out of genuine care.
When we think that we have found enough, we continue to dig. And that is when the magic happens. That's where we find the gold that we're looking for.
That's where we build that relationship. We earn the right to share our value that we have in our pocket. Maybe that's when we find the ability exactly what we need to take them from where they are to where they want to go.
It becomes about them and how we can serve and how we can make their life better. And isn't that the most important treasure we can find?
So keep digging. You have no idea how close you are. And when you're ready to stop, just dig two or three more times and look, you'll find the gold you're looking for.