Those of you who are familiar with the IMPAX Process or our book, Beyond Selling Value, have heard about the 95-5 Rule. You know that we use this rule to emphasize the importance of listening while conducting the research meetings that are so critical to understanding the customer's business. Specifically, it refers to the concept of listening 95% of the time and talking 5% of the time.

Another way to think about this came up this week during a SAMA (Strategic Account Management Association - www.strategicaccounts.org) University session in Chicago, when Steve Dorsey, Director of Business Development with NPD Techworld, posed this question, "As a salesperson, which animal are you like, a hippo or a rabbit?"

When we asked for clarification, he gave us this short and simple response, "As salespeople we need to be a lot more like rabbits. Hippos have a giant mouth and tiny ears, but rabbits have a tiny mouth and giant ears."

What a great visual picture this gives us, and what a great reminder this can be for us. When we're conducting a sales call or research meeting, we can quickly ask ourselves the question, which animal are we acting like, a hippo or a rabbit?