Butting heads I learnt to ask better questions

It'd take me 5hrs to get a similar result but a Master builder can fit a door in under 15mins. When you own a start up business you do more on your own to save money, however sometimes it can work out costing more to do yourself. For aspects that matter like plastering or your companies branding, it's worth using a professional. This will ensure you put your best foot forward before you start work and have straight walls in your building.
Every Wednesday a group of us grab a bucket of $6 wings at the Casa Publica in Christchurch City. I had invited a good friend Vladimiro for the first time. He's started a company recently 'Italian food philosophy' and wanted some advice on his brochure, so I asked him to bring it along.
Vladimiro's current brochures were printed on a quality stock but designed in Microsoft Word, which is an amateur's tool at best. I said to Vladimiro "Start again it’s all wrong do this here, align that there and write more there." But Vladimiro replied, "I don't want it to be too salesy or show all our products, it's not a catalogue"
I was hearing all these as objections and my ego was there on the table with my solution. I started to defend my ideas and stopped listening to Vladimiro. Luckily, my friend Carl stepped in as he could see our communication was in trouble. We were butting heads. I wanted it my way and we weren't listening to each other. I hadn't asked the questions to uncover the result we needed to achieve together. Carl's a real estate agent at Mike Pero and a brilliant sales person. When he could see I was stuck, he took over the conversation. By asking good questions and listening to Vladimiro he married together both our Ideas and found a solution.
The key learning for me was: It wasn't a compromise of my best solution. The best solution is arrived at by working with the client.I have since told this story to several of my mentors. Marsden, the ex director of Vivint New Zealand gave me this advice.

• Slow your presentation down. It's about gaining understanding. Don't arrive at a solution before an initial consultation.
• Give lots of opportunities for concerns and objections to come up before proposing a solution. Defending your proposed solution from the beginning without having covered concerns first may lose you the sale.
• Break things down and ask good questions. Concerns and objections will come up and you'll be able to deal with them as they do.
• Follow statements with a question. It's simple and keeps you both engaged in the process.

Here's an example from my work
Statement:"By leasing, you get the copier you need without paying the full cost upfront. Payments are regular and fixed which makes budgeting easy. Most of my customers prefer to lease as it makes upgrading simple. There's no large upfront cost when faced with upgrading an old or outdated machine. Increased cash flow and 100% tax deductible payments.”
Question:"$5659 upfront, or make payments of $135.36 per month over 60. Which do you prefer?