14. Touch the pain.
Ow, that hurts! Listen, I'm not a doctor, but I can play one on TV. If you are my client or potential client and you have a need, I am here to help. But it is very difficult for me to understand if I am able to help you if you don't tell me how I can help. So I am going to touch your pain.
I am not reaching for salt shakers or lemon juice, but I am going to look, listen, and maybe even touch it a little. If I don't do this, you will never tell me what catastrophe befell you the last time you stayed at my hotel. Or what details were missed at the last meeting you planned at the Marriott (sorry, guys). So, I am going to prod and poke until you tell me what went wrong before and how we need to fix it.
If you are a seasoned sales manager, you will do the same. Touch your clients pain, lightly, but hard enough so that you evoke emotion and can understand the full scale of what is really important to your client.
An ER doctor will always expect the worse when told "oh, it's really nothing", and you should do the same before you finalize your sale. Don't wait until there's an autopsy, or you will have no one to blame but yourself.
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