There is a question I believe every salesperson should ask themselves regularly:
What am I assuming about my customer that I haven’t actually verified?
Assumptions are incredibly expensive in sales.
We assume we know what the customer wants.
We assume we know why they are interested.
We assume price is their biggest concern.
We assume they understand our value.
We assume the person speaking to us is the real decision-maker.
And then we wonder why deals disappear.
The dangerous thing about assumptions is that they often feel like knowledge.
Experience can make this worse.
After speaking to thousands of customers, a salesperson begins to recognise patterns. Patterns are useful-but they can also create blind spots.
Every customer may belong to the same industry.
They may have the same job title.
They may face similar problems.
But their motivations can still be completely different.
One CEO may want growth.
Another may want stability.
One procurement head may prioritise price.
Another may prioritise reliability.
One sales leader may want training because performance is declining.
Another may want it because performance is growing and they want to accelerate it.
The surface problem can look identical while the underlying motivation is completely different.
That is why curiosity is such an important sales skill.
Instead of assuming, ask.
Instead of interpreting too quickly, explore.
Instead of preparing the answer, listen for the reason behind the answer.
The strongest salespeople don’t merely collect information.
They uncover meaning.
And sometimes the most valuable thing a salesperson can discover is that their original understanding of the customer was wrong.
That isn’t failure.
That’s progress.
Because once you stop assuming you understand your customer, you finally create the space to actually understand them.
In a world where customers are becoming increasingly informed, personalised and difficult to persuade, perhaps the greatest competitive advantage isn’t another sales technique.
It is genuine curiosity.
You cannot influence what you haven’t taken the time to understand.
Keep training.
— Vibhor Asri
Global Sales Trainer | Author | Negotiation & Persuasion Expert