Dear friends,

For most sales people, listening is the time spent waiting before they get to talk again. If you want to get into trouble during a sales call, then you should spend more time talking than you do listening.

Here are six ways sales people can improve their listening abilities.

1. Resist the temptation to talk too much. Let's start with the most difficult one. I'm not the only sales person who has sold the customer and then continued to talk and actually bought the product back! You've probably talked yourself out of a sale, too. Yes, at some point in the sales process you must talk more than the customer. This usually occurs in the "Sell the Solution" or presentation stage. However, the rest of the time you should do less talking and more listening.

2. Move into the customer's comfort zone. The reason we talk so much is simple: By talking we stay in our own comfort zone. We know more about our products than we do about our customer or his/her needs. Therefore, we stay in our comfort zones longer. In order to move into the customer's comfort zone, ask questions that the customer is interested in discussing with you.

3. Don't play "one-ups-man-ship" with the customer. This is also called "I can top that one." When we hear a customer discuss an event, story, or experience, the tendency is to try to match his/her story with one of our own. It's okay to relate to the customer via shared experiences if the purpose is to establish a relationship. However, make sure this tactic assists you in building the relationship, not hindering it.

4. Don't talk while I'm interrupting! Oh, this is also a tough one. Fight the urge to finish the customer's thoughts or sentences. Don't you find it distracting when it happens to you? So do your customers. Oftentimes, sales people interrupt so they won't lose their train of thought. If that's the case, design a technique to remind yourself so that you won't forget that important point. It may be a mental or written note. It may be crossing your fingers. It's okay for the customer to interrupt you; it's not okay for you to interrupt the customer.

5. Slow down to go fast. Slow down your listening. How do you do this? One way is to completely hear what the customer is really saying. Be careful not to pre-judge. Slow down and take in all that is being said, and what is not being said. You must know the complete problem in order to recommend the complete solution.

6. Don't be a gunfighter. Remember the gun fights in the old TV westerns? The gunfighter would draw his gun and fire six shots. Then, as the other guy fired his six shots, the first gunfighter would re- load. We do the same thing on sales calls. We fire all our bullets at our customer. While the customer is responding to us, what are we doing? That's right, we are re-loading. We are getting ready for our next shots. We're not paying attention to what the customer is saying because we are distracted as we load our gun! This may take the form of designing our next question or assessing how well the sales call is progressing. Either way, we aren't listening to the customer. So, you should still fire your shots. Just remember to listen before you re-load. That way, you'll know what bullets to fire and you'll locate the target more accurately.

Well, there you have it. Six ways become a more effective listener on a sales call. Will these work? Only if you do!

Best Regards,

Shreya