Early on, I thought selling was about being persuasive. Knowing the product cold, having an answer for everything, never losing the thread of the pitch.
It took a while to figure out that the deals that actually closed were the ones where I talked the least. Where I asked a question and then sat with the silence long enough for the real answer to come out. People don’t buy because you explained well. They buy because they felt understood.
That lesson carries over to almost everything, including learning something new. When I’m picking up a cloud concept now, I try to do the same thing I’d do with a customer: slow down, ask what’s really going on underneath, and not pretend I get it before I do.