Years ago, I got tired of watching salespeople walk into customer conversations and immediately start talking.

Features. Benefits. Capabilities. Credentials. Everything they knew about their company and their solution.

I started calling it PUKE: People Who Utter Knowledge About Everything.

It gets a laugh, but the problem behind it is very real.

When you spend the conversation proving how much you know, you may never discover what the customer actually needs.

That isn’t leadership.

Leadership starts with curiosity.

Instead of beginning with your solution, begin with questions:

What’s the biggest problem you’re facing?

What are you trying to accomplish?

Where are you trying to go?

What’s preventing you from getting there?

Those questions change the entire conversation.

Because once the customer tells you what really matters, you don’t need to discuss every feature or capability you have.

You may only need to talk about two or three things.

But they’re the right two or three things.

They’re the issues the customer cares about most and the issues that will ultimately influence the decision they make.

That’s one of the parallels I’ve always seen between sales and leadership.

A leader doesn’t simply tell people what they know or dictate what should happen next.

A leader understands the situation, asks the right questions, listens carefully and then helps people move toward the outcome they’re trying to achieve.

Salespeople have the opportunity to do exactly the same thing.

In this conversation with Gerhard Gschwandtner of Selling Power TV, I explain why this idea played such an important role in my thinking about sales leadership—and ultimately in my decision to write about the connection between the two.

The next time you’re preparing for a customer conversation, don’t ask yourself:

“What do I need to tell them?”

Ask:

“What do I need to understand?”

That question can change everything.