Inside the Room: Trust Training With an Investment Banking Team
I recently spent an afternoon running a workshop for an investment banking team. Eight dealmakers. Exactly the kind of professionals this work was built for: smart people, paid for their judgment, in rooms where the stakes are real and the client is nervous.
We didn't do a lecture.
Instead, we worked real situations, live. Volunteers came to the front of the room and ran discovery conversations while everyone watched. I'm always the only asshole in the demo. That's a rule. Everyone else gets to see the difference and then practice the better version on their own live situations.
Here's the moment that changed the room.
One volunteer ran a discovery conversation with a business owner who was getting pressure to sell. His first question was great: tell me more. His second question, also great: tell me more. His third question: "How can I help you?"
I stopped him and asked: who's that question about?
He didn't dodge it. "That's about us. I mean, me."
Three questions. That's how long it took for the professional reflex to kick in and quietly turn the client's conversation into a pitch. Nobody in that room thought of themselves as that guy. Every one of them recognized the move.
Which is exactly where I landed the session. Here's how I closed:
Nobody in that room was there because they weren't smart enough. And their competitors aren't stupid either. Everyone at this level is smart, trained, skilled, and credentialed. That's the trap: when everyone can do credibility, when everyone can do reliability, being smart stops being a differentiator. It's table stakes. The thing that's genuinely hard, the thing almost nobody practices, is lowering your self-orientation and putting yourself on the same side as your client. Whether clients trust you is what fuels the career.
My thanks to the team for bringing real work into the room and for diving in the way they did. Client scenarios stay in the room; the skills leave with everyone.
If you want to see what a session looks like for your team, start at winthequestion.com.
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