Selling

Jack Krupansky's blog Entrepreneurial Engineering has a post on rainmaking that references a post by Guy Kawasaki. My favorite entry is

Make prospects talk. If prospects are open to buying your product or service, they will usually tell you what it will take to close them. All you have to do is (a) ask questions to get them talking about their needs, (b) shut up, (c) listen, and then (d) explain how your product or service fills their needs (if it indeed does). Most salespeople can't do this because (a) they're not prepared to ask good questions; (b) they're too stupid to shut up; and (c) they don't know their product or service well enough to know whether it can in fact fill these needs. When it comes to rainmaking, there's clearly a reason why God gave us two ears but only one mouth.

The Entrepreneurial Engineer spends a good deal of time talking about the importance of questioning in all kinds of interpersonal situations including salesmanship.