Weeks passed.
Tom went to the coffee shop but … No mentor ?
No notes. No napkins.
At first, Tom thought maybe it was over—that the man had moved on. But he didn’t think his transformation was complete, like when Luke Skywalker returned to visit Yoda to complete his Jedi training.
So, he kept going to the coffee shop.
Tom practiced. Reviewed old calls. Rewrote his questions. Paused more during conversations. Listened more closely—not just to what was said, but how it was said.
Slowly, his instincts sharpened. He started noticing patterns—things buyers would reveal without realising. Motivations they hinted at but didn’t say aloud.
And just when he stopped expecting it, the mentor returned.
“You’ve been doing the work,” the man said, sitting beside him at their usual café. “I can see you are becoming what you wanted to be. You are ready for more now. I was giving you the time you needed to become the change.”
Tom nodded. Asking eagerly,“What’s next?”
The man folded his arms. “Understanding people—really understanding them—isn’t about demographics or decision-making authority. It’s about decoding how they think… what moves them… how they process information and what holds them back.”
Tom leaned in. The old man spoke with the wisdom of his age beaming, “There are questions—not just about business needs —but ones that reveal how people make decisions. What gets them moving. What stops them. If you ask these questions, and listen—not just to the answers but to the structure of what they say—you’ll know more about them than they know about themselves and this will take rapport to a much higher level . it will allow you to speak so that they really understand what you are saying.”
Tom blinked. “Like what kind of questions?”
The man handed Tom a summary page with the question written on it and an explanation of how to interpret the answers.
“Then,” the old man added, “align the way you speak with what they need to hear—how they need to hear it. Not changing who you are. But choosing words the way a musician chooses notes.”
They then went for a walk through a nearby park and the old man took Tom through scenarios of how he could weave these questions into a customer interaction.
Tom started using these questions. At first, it felt unnatural—like stepping into a conversation wearing someone else’s shoes. But then, it clicked.
A hesitant buyer, who had been on the fence for weeks, suddenly opened up after Tom asked some of these questions and then presented his product in the way the buyer needed to hear it. He walked out of that meeting with the sale AND a happy customer.
Another prospect, previously disengaged, suddenly shifted forward in his chair and started asking Tom questions about his offer.
Tom wasn’t pushing anymore. He was pulling—drawing things out that buyers hadn’t voiced before. And they trusted him for it. He was so happy that he could be himself and not change to be that sly salesman trying to use some tactic to get people to buy.
The next time the mentor appeared, he seemed more serious.
“Words shape perception,” he said. “You’ve used them to connect. Now, use them to guide. Not by convincing. But by helping others imagine a different reality—one where they already own the solution.”
Tom furrowed his brow. “You mean like storytelling?”
The old man replied, "Yes storytelling can do that and it should be part of your sales skillset. But …"
“More than that,” the mentor said. “You embed direction into what seems like description. You speak in ways that imply truth… motion… inevitability. Done right, they don’t even realise they’ve shifted.”
Tom asked, “Is that like using a ‘Yes Set’ to get them used to saying Yes.”
The old man responded , “I’m surprised you asked that, ‘Yes Sets’ are manipulative, we don’t manipulate. Yes Sets try to force a buying action. The problem many people have is that they are locked into certain ways of thinking. Those fixed ways of thinking have led them to the problems they are now experiencing and having difficulty solving. The way you talk to them will open their mind to think differently, to consider new things and take new paths to get what they want.” “Ah”, said Tom, “I’m not using my new language skills to con them into buying, I’m using it to get them to THINK.”
They sat in the coffee shop through a couple of coffees and a sandwich while Tom practiced the language he needed to adopt. The old man advised him to take sets of words, three at a time, and practice using them by writing a sentence he would normally use in a sales call then rewriting the sentence incorporating the new words.
Tom practiced then tested it out.
And buyers followed. Not because they were tricked—but because they felt certain. Safe.
Tom was no longer persuading.
He was leading.
He didn’t go to the coffee shop for about a month.
When he returned, the old man was there.
Tom asked, “How did you know I’d be here today?”
“Tom”, he replied, “I suggested it to you in our last meeting, using the very language you’ve be learning.”
Tom looked pensive, then grinned.
Then came the final lesson.
“Tom you’ve changed a lot ”, the old man said, “the expressions on you face have changed, no longer frowning, a lot more smiles and you seem a lot more relaxed. Now it’s time to give you a little insurance policy”
“What ?” Tom exclaimed
“No matter how well you relate to people and speak their language and direct them to think in new ways it’s hard for many people to make a change. They fear it. They procrastinate. So, they come up with objections. You need a way to deal with them”
The old man continued. “Objections aren’t obstacles,” the mentor said. “They’re openings—if you stop resisting them. The moment you try to push through a ‘no,’ you strengthen it. But if you align with it, reflect it, get them to look at it differently… the resistance dissolves … your first task Tom is to think about objections in this new way.
Tom thought of the dozens of calls he’d been on where objections stopped everything. Price. Timing. Internal approval. Every one of them had felt like a brick wall.
Once again Tom had to practice, all the while thinking of objections in this new way. He did not practice wrote learning scripted responses but to train his own mind to think differently. To come up with responses on the spot during a conversation.
Tom started responding differently.
When a CFO said, “We don’t have the budget right now,” Tom replied, “Of course. And making that kind of decision without clarity would be a mistake. Can I share something that’s helped others plan for when the timing is right?”
Walls turned into doors.
Once again Tom was away from the coffee shop while he took on this new skill.
But when he returned the mentor was there sipping on a latte.
The mentor said, “Your transformation is nearly done there’s just one more thing you need to understand,” he said as he bit down on a croissant. “You’re not just dealing with buyers anymore. You’re dealing with people who’ve been lied to. Pitched to. Burned. They don’t trust easily. And rightly so.”
Tom nodded.
“You’re selling in the post-trust era,” the man continued. “Skepticism isn’t just common—it’s automatic. If you try to fight it, you lose. If you ignore it, you lose. But if you acknowledge it, respect it, and still help them see something true… then you become the ONE they believe.”
What you have learned will help but here are a couple of books you should read that talk about dealing with people in this “post trust era”.
Read them and we’ll talk again.
Tom let those words sink in.
He realised something:
He hadn’t just upgraded his skills.
He had changed.
He’d redefined what it meant to sell.
To serve.
To guide.
To lead without pressure.
And yet, even now, he sensed the path wasn’t done.
There was still more to discover.
When he returned to the office now he was eager to look at the sales leaderboard and see how he had climbed the rankings. The other reps were talking about the deals HE was closing. His sales manger looked at him differently. Phil the flashy, arrogant rep was having trouble meeting quota and Mike looked at him with a knowing smile.