“Just dance, gonna be okay," - Lady Gaga

Have you ever watched two professional dancers whirling their way across the stage and wondered who is leading the dance? It's impossible to tell, right? They dip, turn, and twist with ease, moving as a single unit.
Your business development conversations should be the same way. It should be an effortless exchange of information that to an outsider sounds effortless. What the outsider can't see is who is leading the conversation. It's even better when the prospect thinks, "this is easy and I'm getting a lot from it."
How do you make this happen?
Intellect, empathy, structure, language, and practice. Here's a quick thought on each one.
Intellect: Intellect is the ability to think critically throught what's being said. Clarifying, challenging, and re-framing demonstrate intellect.
Empathy: Empathy is the ability to control your emotions while considering your conversation buddy's emotions. Show them you care by considering where they're coming from.
Structure: An intimate knowledge of where the conversation is headed allows you to start at any point in the conversation and move it forward or backward to ellicit information. This is the technical leading of the conversation dance.
Lanuguage: A command of language (verbal and non-verbal) allows your conversation buddy to track where you are and where you want to go. It helps to have an arsenal of ways to redirect conversations to stay on track without extending the meeting.
Practice: The more you do anything the better you get at it. The key is to practice with purpose because significant progress can be made in short periods of time with focus.
When you have these five elements working together, you'll glide effortlessly through the conversation and your prospect will think, "Not only did that feel good, I learned something."
Now get to it and call if you need help.
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