Gold Bars and Golden Nuggets

Paying attention to every single word that comes out of someone’s mouth is as valuable as gold bars.

“Golden Nuggets” is the term we use at Southwestern Consulting to describe the seemingly insignificant things that people say throughout the course of conversation. A common denominator amongst most successful “influencers” of people is that they pay attention to every word that comes out of someone’s mouth.
Earlier this year, I was following a sales rep in the field for a sales performance consulting project. I was perplexed how many things the prospect was saying that the sales rep wasn’t paying attention to. It was like gold bars flying out of the prospects mouth, and instead of taking out a net and catching the gold bars, the sales rep was dodging them and trying to get through their presentation as fast as possible.

So what are the little things you should be listening for?
Here is a list of “golden nuggets”:
– hobbies and things they do for fun
– people they know that you know as well
– things that they are interested in
– what they like about your product or service
– their answer to all of your questions
– people they say would be interested in your product or service
– what they don’t like about the current service provider
– why they didn’t buy from the last person they talked with
– why they accepted the meeting with you
– what grade their kids are in
– where they work
– what area of town they live in
– where they grew up
– what they say after you answer their objections
– why they bought
– why someone didn’t buy
– what they like the best about your product or service
– what kind of dog they have
– what kind of car they drive
– their favorite sport
– how they know the referrals they gave you
– what they did before the job they’re at now

Take a look at this list and ask yourself “how effective am I at getting ‘golden nuggets,’ remembering them, and then using that information at the right time to answer objections, influence someone to see things my way, set an appointment, or close a sale?” I recommend creating a “Golden Nugget” note book that you write down all of the detailed information you gather about the people that you interact with daily. Then before every meeting or phone call where you’re talking with someone that you’ve got “golden nuggets” about, you pull out your “golden nugget” notebook and review the valuable information you know about them before engaging with them.

Have fun gold digging!