Better Listening Skills = More Sales

Today's business environment is intrinsically tied together by ongoing information exchanges between two people. This personal communication is most often facilitated by the spoken word. Understanding this information, as it flows within a dialogue between two people is fundamental to improving one's selling effectiveness.

One of the most significant business information exchanges is between a company's front line sales representatives and either it's existing or potential customers. Information processed between these parties will have a significant affect on many other employees within both party's respective companies as purchase commitments are made.

Maximizing the effectiveness of aural business communication between sales personnel and customers hinges on two fundamental communication process components, talking and listening. It makes sense that no matter how well you articulate a message to a customer, if it is not effectively absorbed by your target audience the probability of sales success is greatly reduced.

Why Do Salespeople Tend to NOT Listen Well?

It is known that humans think faster than they listen. While a sales prospect is talking at an average rate of 125 words a minute, the average salesperson is thinking at a much more rapid rate. The act of listening, the differential between the salesperson's thinking rate and the prospect's speaking rate means the salesperson's brain can and does work with hundreds of other words, in addition to the ones being heard. Often the salesperson is thinking about what they should or will say at the expense of what the prospect is actually telling them.

The challenge at hand for all sales personnel is to learn how NOT to construct their ideas and responses during the most critical stages of their selling process. This is not easy to do given the sales prospect is also subjecting themselves to the same listening distractions. It is no wonder so many sales calls "fall apart" after the salesperson missed a key point made by the prospect and consequently lost or never got the order.

Many business professionals, especially those who make their living selling, depend greatly on their communication skills to enhance their overall job performance and maximize their income. Few salespeople have yet to even scratch the surface of developing their optimum listening skill potential. Many sales professionals have never had the opportunity to learn how to listen most effectively.

Can A Salesperson Learn to Listen Better?

A comprehensive study completed at the University of Minnesota examined the listening ability of several thousand students and hundreds of business professionals. One of the primary conclusions of this study was that immediately after the average person had listened to someone talk, they remembered only about half of what was actually said - no matter how intensely they attempted to absorb all the information communicated.

Our basic inability as humans to listen effectively requires us to utilize continuous educational reinforcement to truly master listening skills not only in a business environment but on a personal level as well. This means for a salesperson to be most effective in any selling situation a systematic effort must be made to consciously attempt to concentrate more on what is said to them, than what they will say in response ? this simple priority of aural information exchange elements will provide a significant selling advantage in almost every possible selling scenario.

Prioritizing listening over talking in a sales situation is easier said than done. It takes training and ongoing integration into any selling technique process.

Listening Skill Development Should be in All Sales Training

Any training, especially sales training, should improve listening skills development. Like any skill set, practice in a controlled setting can not only build self awareness of listening deficiencies, but it can reinforce required skills to leverage other, associated selling tactics integrated in the sales process. As Vince Lombardi once said, "It's not practice makes perfect, its PERFECT practice makes perfect!"

Six Steps to Improving Selling Listening Skills

Again, with practice and conscious resolve, a salesperson can acquire the mental agility to become a better listener by mastering these six "mental listening exercises":

1) Learn to "listen ahead": By "listening ahead", trying to anticipate where a discussion is leading to, during the dialogue, determining the conclusion in advance of your required response allows you to relax and improve information absorption

2) Learn to periodically validate communicated information: By mentally striving to validate the accuracy and completeness of information points made by the prospect, especially during pauses in the dialogue, (which can be achieved with note taking), you can allow yourself to absorb more information easier, especially information forthcoming in the continued dialogue

3) Utilize "Active Listening" techniques: By periodically, mentally summarizing the major points communicated by the prospect and voicing, reaffirming your interpretation of the points made back to the prospect you add a tremendous amount of clarity to the information exchanged thus far

4) Strive to understand versus "Judging": By working to consciously understand what the prospect is saying versus the natural tendency of judging - approving or disapproving what is said will allow you to absorb what is actually said more than any other listening development technique

5) Use your eyes to "get the rest of the story" By listening with your eyes, paying attention to the prospect's body language, their nonverbal facial and body movements or hand gestures you can see what the whole body is trying to tell you, not just the mouth!

6) Maintain a mental repertoire of common responses: By mentally developing and rehearsing how you are going to strategically respond to common sales prospect purchase objections, for example, in advance of a sales call, allows you to listen more effectively. A comprehensive mental inventory of common responses will also give you more confidence in any selling situation.

Today's successful salesperson is ultimately an effective problem solver. Whether it is an existing or potential customer, the most successful sales people continuously strive to hone their listening skills to accurately define their customer's business intentions. If properly trained, and with constant practice, a salesperson will quickly realize that how they talk or present their product or service is relatively unimportant when compared to how and what they listen to, when guided by well honed listening skills.

Applying the selling skills developed from these listening exercises can give extraordinary power, not only to the spoken word, but the words listened to, and may be, in practice, provide the only margin of victory in any given sales situation.

By Mark Smock

The #1 Lead Generation System of Top Sales People

Developing an abundant supply of targeted referrals is the number one lead generation system used by top sales people.

The first step to implementing any successful lead generation system is to get your attitude right. Becoming a "Master of Referrals" requires the proper referral attitude.

Many sales people believe that by asking for referrals they're putting people on the spot or being pushy. "I'll wait and if they want to refer someone to me they will". If this is your attitude you need to change it.

Do you care about the people you do business with? Does that caring come "from the heart" instead of from your pocket? Do you care about the products or services your client's friends are buying? Do you believe your product or service is the best?

I figure your answer is yes!

If you truly believe your product or service is the best money can buy and you care about your clients and their friends, you're doing them a disservice when you don't implement this lead generation system of asking for referrals. If you don't they may end up with one of your competitors who offers less benefit, protection and advantage as you do.

Your job is to make sure everyone in your client's network is looked after by the best. So make sure that's you!

You see, your clients are probably too busy to continually think about helping people in their network. By using a lead generation system of asking for referrals you're giving them an easy way to help their friends. You're making sure they get the same top quality products and services.

You've Got to Create a WOW Experience

Most sales people only try to satisfy their clients. Statistics show that two out of three consumers that were merely satisfied with a company will never return. If you only meet the client's expectations, you'll never see two thirds of them again and you won't receive an abundance of referrals.

So how do you get a client to come back to you again and again? How do you get your current and past clients to give you a personal endorsement to their friends and relatives?

By implementing the second step of this lead generation system and creating a WOW experience! Make every clients experience special!

How many of your friends, family and business associates would you refer to a company that?

?Takes care of your needs better than you ever expected
?Delivers more than they promise
?Makes you feel special every time you communicate with them
?Delivers amazing results for you

If you take the time to create a WOW experience for your clients, it's very possible every one of them will be selling for you.

One of the easiest ways to get referrals is too continually over deliver. If you give much more than you promised, people will want to help you in any way they can.

Over delivering should be the way you do business. The referrals, thank you notes and new friends you make are the bonuses you receive for doing your job.

Make a genuine difference in people's lives and you'll always get lots of referrals.

Make it Easy, Fun and Enjoyable to Refer People to You

People don't like doing difficult things unless there's an incredibly rewarding benefit in doing so. Even then many people still won't do something that appears too difficult.

Many salespeople's clients are unsure about who to refer. Which means they have to do all the work by figuring out who to refer? So they may end up referring no one.

Make sure your clients know exactly who to refer. Otherwise you're not going to get a high quantity or quality of referrals.

The third step of this lead generation system is give each client a good idea of who they could refer.

For example, The Realtor you recently purchased your home from could say to you?

"Do you know anyone who recently had a baby, got married or received a promotion and might be thinking about buying or selling a house?

If you do, I'm sure they could benefit from my services. After all you know how good my service is. So, please introduce them to us. If you do I'll be sure to do something wonderful to thank you."

You can see how this helps you know "exactly" who the Realtor is looking for.

So make sure you show a genuine interest in your clients, their families and friends. Make it your business that they receive the best products and services available, YOURS! Create a WOW experience for every client you do business with. Make over delivering your way of doing business. And make it easy for people to refer new clients your way by telling them who to refer.

Follow the three steps of this lead generation system and you're on your way to creating an abundance of new target clients and becoming a Master of Referrals.

By Jim Klein

The Reason Why They Buy

If you're a business person you want to sell your product or service. If it's been a struggle, then you probably aren't giving your potential customers a good "Reason Why" they should buy from you.

Take off your "business person" hat for a minute, and put on your "consumer" hat. You ARE a consumer when you need products other than your own. And why do you buy what you buy? Not just because it's there. Not because someone else needs your business. You buy because you think the product will meet your wants and needs.

How do you know? Perhaps you've used it before. Perhaps a friend recommended this product or service. Or perhaps the advertising gave you a good "reason why" you should become a customer.

The reality is -- we're all tuned into station WIFM: What's in it for me?

When you put pen to paper and begin to draft your next ad, put yourself in your customers' shoes and ask yourself what's in it for them. WHY will your product or service give them more than someone else's? Do you offer better service? Faster service? Higher quality? Lower price? Greater variety? Better guarantee?

What makes you stand out from the crowd?

Whatever it is, that's what you must convey to your customer.

By Marte Cliff

The Clock is Ticking on Your Leads

Every day is critical when you are in the business of sales. That lead you receive today could very easily be gone tomorrow.

It is very important to act on your lead the very second you get it, not an hour later, or a few days later.

The second it is in one hand, the next hand should be dialing the phone.

Too often leads and referrals are taken for granted, sales people assume that because someone gave them a lead, that it is exclusive to only them. It is not, at any time one of your competitors can call that person and offer them a better price or a better service.

I once worked with a guy in the mortgage industry. He received a lead from someone in his networking group on a Wednesday. He called the lead the very minute he got back to his office, and he was on his way to building a very nice relationship with her. By Thursday the two of them had come to a decision on a rate and product for her home that she was refinancing. Everything was moving along nicely.

Or so it seemed.

When he called her on Monday to follow up, it turned out that she was working with another loan officer, and would no longer be needing any of my co-worker's services.

As it turned out, his customer was at a family reunion over the weekend. While making small talk, she mentioned that she was in the process of refinancing her home.

One of her third cousins just so happened to be present at this conversation, and subsequently chimed in when he heard the word refinance.

He proceeded to tell her that he was a loan officer and that if she allowed him an opportunity, he could most likely get her a better rate. After some more small talk, she decided that since she was only three days into the process of refinancing with someone else, that it wouldn't hurt to give someone in her family an opportunity to do business with her.

So much for my co-workers loan.

So keep this in mind the next time you receive a lead. It is not a given. Give your leads the same amount of attention as you would give a customer you worked your tail off to get, or one with a high profile.

Keep in mind, every time you make contact with your customer, you are building a rapport with them, and strengthening the relationship you have with them. The more they speak with you the more they will get to know you and trust you.

It doesn't matter if the lead is from a friend or a family member. If your customer can get a better deal with someone else, nine times out of ten, they will take the better deal.

So call your leads as soon as you get them, give them exemplary customer service, be accessible at all times to answer their questions, and keep things moving. And remember, the clock is ticking on your leads.

By Jay Conners

Dont Close Your Eyes Or Let Deaf Ears Fall Upon You

To listen to your customer is important, and to hear your customer is critical. But, to see what actions they take is the lifeline to your business.

Recently, I was giving an introductory presentation of the Life Enrichment course to a group of Real Estate agents.

The objective was to sell the agents on participating in the Hypmovation Life Enrichment eight -session, six-week course. The course teaches people how to apply the science of self-programming the subconscious mind through self-hypnosis to improve all areas of life.

During the twenty-two minute sales presentation, I asked questions of the agents to find out what was important to them.

The questions were:

? Do you wish that you could have more control over your life?

? What if you could completely remove and eliminate the fear of cold calling on new prospects--would that be important to you?

? How would your life change if you could permanently remove financial stress?

During the questioning and probing period, I was getting all the right vocal, body language, and yes signs from the audience. However, I didn't feel like I had fully connected with what would influence or inspire them to take action and enroll in the training.

While carefully watching my audience, the next question I asked got a resounding rise in energy from them. I knew now that I was on the right track.

The question I asked next was-

"Would it be important for you to eliminate the physical pain and everyday stress that keeps you from enjoying life more?"

After finding out what motivated and stimulated them to sit up and take interest, I was left with only two other steps. The first step was to explain the benefits of the program and how it would solve their problems. The second step was to enroll them into the program.

The principle lesson:

Listening is important. Hearing is critical. Watching the actions of your customers is the lifeline to your success in business.

By Don L. Price

Get Tough

You deal with rejections, frustrations, disappointment, and possibly disrespect on a daily basis. You probably experience more emotional ups and downs than most other professionals. And, no matter how successful you are, your income is less predictable than that of salaried employees. As a salesperson, your level of mental and emotional toughness affects you everyday, both on and off the job.

Being mentally and emotionally tough is less about what you say and do than it is about how you feel about what you say and do. For example, if your feelings about asking a prospect to make a decision keep you from asking, then you start a downward spiral to nowhere. First, you're uncomfortable asking, so you don't ask and end up wasting time with a non-qualified prospect. You get angry with yourself and/or the prospect for wasting time. All these negative feelings and actions only serve to tear down your emotional and mental well-being.

Here's a Sandler rule: "Never become emotionally involved in a sales call, especially a cold call." Being emotionally tough doesn't mean that you have no emotions or that you are a cold person. It means that you have learned how to control your emotions so they don't keep you from doing what you have to do.

Excerpted from the President's Club Professional Development Program (trainer edition) © 2000 Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved

By Dan Hudock

Build Rapport by Mirroring

Traditionally, salespeople look for something in the office that begs a question. For example, "Is that your sailfish on the wall?"

How many times do you think that prospect has been asked that question? How often do you think the prospect hears a salesperson ask about the family portrait on the desk, last night's baseball game, etc.? The prospect anticipates these questions. Verbal skill is actually a very small part of the rapport quotient. Non-verbal communication goes a long way toward establishing rapport with your prospect.

This may seem to suggest the need to learn to read body language. But it's not as simple as interpreting (guessing) what your prospect's body language is saying. The fact is, people feel comfortable with people who are like themselves! So, as a professional salesperson, you can use a technique called mirroring to match your prospect's body language so that your prospect relaxes and feels comfortable in your presence.

Show and Tell (and Touch)

All of us interpret our personal environments through our senses, which act like filters. Your mind is constantly asking, "How does what just happened fit into my world? How do I make sense of this and that?"

You use your senses to interpret your environment: sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste. For certain stimuli you use only one of these senses; for others, you use some combination of the senses.

In the business world, three senses are dominant: sight, sound, and touch. (Unless you sell a food product, you generally cannot give your prospect the opportunity to taste or smell.)

Most of the time, your prospects rely on one sense more than the others to make decisions. Prospects are either visual people, meaning they need to see a picture before they can make a decision; or auditory, meaning they need to hear something before they can make a decision; or kinesthetic, meaning they need to touch or feel to make a decision. Some combination of these senses is at work in all prospects, but one sense tends to dominate.

So what happens when your prospect is kinesthetic and you walk into the room and say: "How ëbout those Cowboys? Did you see the game yesterday?" How does your kinesthetic prospect - who needs to touch - gain any sense of commonality out of what you said? You'd want to say: "Wow, doesn't it make you feel great when those Cowboys win?" Your kinesthetic prospect knows, indeed, what it feels like when the Cowboys win or lose.

How can you tell which sense dominates the prospect's decision making engine? Listen for the clues. Every prospect will give them to you. Just listen to what the prospect says.

A visual prospect will say something like, "That seems a little fuzzy to me. Can you show me a picture," or, "I'm having some trouble focusing on that idea. I'd like to see that in my mind's eye." Visual people use their eyes to view the world around them and they need visual images to communicate. If you want to sell a visual prospect, you've got to speak visually. "What do you see yourself accomplishing?" is a good question to ask a visual.

An auditory prospect may say, "What does it sound like when you make the connection," "Can you comment on the importance of this gadget," or, "I've got to make it clear as a bell in order to announce it at the next level." Auditory people use their ears to make sense of the world. Next time you go to a concert, look around for the people who have their eyes closed. They're not sleeping; they're listening. They don't need to see the orchestra to enjoy the music.

A kinesthetic prospect may say, "It feels a little muddled to me. It's got to fit hand-in-glove with what we're already doing," or, "It's a sensitive issue, and I've got be comfortable with it." The kinesthetic prospect seeks trust. Learn to create the feeling of trust, and you can quickly establish rapport with a kinesthetic person. Equally important: Kinesthetics want to know that you are about them.

By "reading" your prospects' cues and "living" in their world, you can quickly establish rapport and begin to improve your sales proficiency. Your goal as a salesperson is to learn these bonding and rapport techniques and practice them repeatedly.

Excerpted from the book You Can't Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar, ©1995 by David H. Sandler. All rights reserved.

By Dan Hudock