Bob Barker, American icon and host of "The Price Is Right" for the past fifty years, retired in 2007. When asked about his career, Mr. Barker said that the key to his success is listening. "When I talk with someone, I listen. And I think if you do, you're going to find little nuggets of gold to go with."



Want your business to succeed? Take a tip from Bob Barker - listen to your clients and find those nuggets of gold.

I was reviewing a set of architecural plans that a client had drawn up recently, and couldn't understand some of the features that he had designed into his "dream home." For instance, the nook that he had drawn in the family room jutted out into the side porch. This area just did not work. It was isolated, square, and intruded into another space. I thought, maybe if I clip a corner, making it a forty-five degree angle, the space would flow into the rest of the room.

In the first meeting with the client to discuss his design, I discovered that they homeschool their five children. They needed a space where one kid could sit and read without being visually distracted, while feeling like he was still part of the family. So the client had designed this rectangular nook with a window seat and bookshelves off of the family room. Now that's a real form and function gold nugget! We will now be able to provide value to our client while helping him redesign his home because we took the time to listen and get to know his family and lifestyle.

It is common for our many of our clients have rooms in their home that have such fond memories attached to them that it is difficult for them to lose those spaces to a new design. Finding out what those spaces are is not always easy when meeting with the clients. Sometimes we don't find out how attached the clients themselves are to an existing room until we present the new design that has done away with the old space.

I recently designed a remodel that did away with the client's childhood bedroom. The client loved the new design, but couldn't bear to part with the room that held so many fond childhood memories, and who could blame her?

Perhaps better listening skills would have spared her the shock of seeing her bedroom erased, and saved us a considerable amount of design time.

If good listening skills save us time and money, and add value to our product, then what exactly are good listening skills?

A quick google search reveals that good listening skills include:

-Making eye contact

-Waiting for the speaker to finish their sentence

-Asking pertinent questions

-Striving to understand the speaker

-Restating or summarizing the speaker's ideas

-Showing genuine interest in the speaker



Dale Carnegie stated that, in order to be successful, you need to be genuinely interested in other people. Are you listening?