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50% of what you need to know about your customer you already know.

Because you share one huge thing: you are both humans. Being human, you can safely guess they want mostly the same things you want: to be respected, to feel safe, to leverage their strengths, and to get noticed for doing good work.

To greatly increase influence, use the 50% you know as the context for what you are communicating. Ask yourself, do I need to help the persons I’m speaking to feel safe about what I am proposing? Is there any way my proposition helps them use their potential and shine? What are the objective improvements I am offering and the emotional hurdles or supports I need to address that block or support my proposition?

When you aim to understand first, you immediately connect on a deeper level because you have made understanding itself an influential part of your communication.

Michael Taylor, SimpleMind