From a lemonade stand in the park, to door-to-door pest control, to wholesale construction materials, to ice hockey gear in the desert, to mortgage loans in this economy, I have sold anything and everything. In my sales journey, I’ve found that the key to being a great salesperson is simply providing what the client/customer wants in a way that also meets their needs.

Steve Jobs once famously said, “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them. That’s why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.” The real key to developing a product that fulfills people’s needs is by talking to the right people and asking the right questions.

People use products that are reliable, familiar, and ultimately useful. The key to developing and selling a useful product is to put the people using it at the center, ask them what they want, uncover what they need, and tailor the product to fulfill their hopes and dreams.