The Art of Listening

The other night I was watching the Will Smith movie, "Hitch." Will Smith plays a date Dr who promises any man that he can help woe any woman. Throughout the movie he provides some pretty clever dating tips. The one that stood out to me was when he said, "You need to listen. That way when it's your turn to talk, you'll have something interesting to say."

In sales, LISTENING is critical. Too many sales reps are so eager to talk, to get a turn to chime in, when in realty the best thing to do is ask thought provoking questions that draw out needs and motives and then sit back and LISTEN to what the customer has to say. If you can't master the art of active LISTENING, you'll never master sales.

Watching the movie got me thinking about common phrases and what they actually mean. For example, in a Classifieds Ad, when you hear "Must be self-motivated," that really means "must work your butt off with very little direction or guidance." Sure there is some sarcasm here but you get my point. Then I thought about this across sales. Here are a few phrases I thought of:

* Not Interested = "You have said nothing of value."
* Not a Priority = "You have not shown me any reason that this should be a priority."
* Management Did Not Give the Go-Ahead = Your fault for investing time and selling to a non-decision maker who could not effectively sell management on your behalf.
* Price is Too High = "You have not differentiated yourself, your company, your process or your product compared to your competition."
* Price Objection: an opportunity to demonstrate value, indicates buyer interest
* Lowest Price = Lowest Profit, Lowest Value

In my opinion, any question from the customer is a buying signal. It's the customer's way of saying, "Tell me more. Clarify this a bit more for me. Help me understand." The key is to LISTEN carefully and translate what they mean since everything the customer says is a clue in helping you unlock their needs and win the sale.

The most successful sales reps are those that can master the many complex components of a sale, one of the most important being LISTENING skills.

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert