As a sales professional one of your greatest assets is your ability to listen.

As the well known saying goes:

“You have 2 ears and one mouth for a reason.
So you can listen twice as much as you speak”.

Wise words indeed.

Sales people who really listen connect with their customers, understand their true concerns and are able to tailor their solutions.

This is why listening skills are so widely taught in sales trainings.

Yet when people talk about the traits of sales people, being a good listener isn’t one that regularly comes to mind.  In fact how many times have you heard someone say a friend should be in sales because they have the gift of the gab!

However one of the most cited reasons for disliking sales people is that they didn’t listen. This is then followed up by they talked too much.  The pair usually go hand in hand.

Why is listening such a challenge?

To understand this let’s look at a few different reasons.

1)  Believing your product/service is the answer to every prospects problems.

 Yes you know what you’re selling is great! But it’s not the answer to everything.

Over enthusiastically telling your prospect it is, without qualifying them and finding out their true needs is a recipe for disaster.

I’ve seen this a lot, especially with rookie reps – just off their training.

I remember the first day I went out to see a real customer. I took them through the whole sales aid rather than tailoring it to their needs.  I must have bored the pants off them.

It took me some time to realise that often less is more in sales!

And this doesn’t just happen with new reps.

I’ve seen experience reps get so enthusiastic with what they are sharing that they have gone into “motormouth” mode. Barely pausing for breath.

Look enthusiasm is great, at the right time and level.

Over-enthusiasm, on the other hand, is overwhelming and off putting.

2)  Trying to convince your customer to buy

This is an easy one to fall into, especially if you feel an opportunity slipping away.

It’s most likely to happen if the customer raises an objection as you close.

Rather than getting clarity around the objection, verbal diarrhoea occurs as you try and overcome their arguments by throwing more information at them.

This rarely has a good outcome and often results in the customer using the “let me think about it” or a similar “help get me out of here” response.

3)  Not embracing silence.

My husband will tell you this is a challenge for me . And I’m not alone.

I’ve definitely had to learn to embrace this during my customer interactions. And I’m still a work in progress with my hubby!

It’s a particular challenge if by nature, you’re a quick thinking, fast speaking person interacting with a more thoughtful, measured prospect.

If you see a pause as an opportunity for you to speak, chances are you will miss some real gold in what the customer is about to share.

Allowing the pause, gives your prospect time to uncover deeper insights to your question and the space to share these.

How to Overcome These Common Issues

Over my years in sales I’ve been taught various techniques for improving my listening skills. Some more helpful than others.

But the one thing that really impacts on how well you listen is a realisation about how much time the voice you are listening to is actually the one in your head.

In workshops I run, I use a powerful exercise for this.

Delegates pair up and in turns, one person speaks whilst the other listens.

The instructions are simple.

• Person A picks a subject they can easily talk about for a few minutes (such as a hobby).
• Person B sits and listens, without speaking and notices what’s going on for them whilst doing this.
• After a couple of minutes they swap over roles.
• At the end of the exercise everyone feeds back to the room.

The delegates are often amazed just how much chatter is going on in their heads. And how much of the time this has their attention rather than what the other person is saying.

And this is what happens in our sales interactions.

For example the customer says something, which triggers a thought in your own head and before you know it you’ve been having a conversation with yourself and missed several things the customer has shared.

I’ll be up front with you.

You’ll never stop this internal chatter. But what you can do is get more attuned to when you drift off in your own head and then bring your focus back to the person in front of you.

When this happens to me I notice my awareness contracting. It’s as if I have mental and perceptual tunnel vision.

As soon as I realise I’m up in my own head my awareness opens up again, my experience expands and I’m back listening to the person I’m with.

For you the sensation may be different.

Try it and see.

You’ll probably find yourself losing and regaining attention frequently. Whenever you realise you’re up in your head gently bring your focus back to the person you’re with.

As your awareness builds you’ll find you notice quicker and are able to bring yourself back to listening with ease.

You’ll be amazed at how much more you actually hear and the impact that has on your sales success.

So for the time being, I invite you to play with increasing your awareness around listening and see what impact that has on your interactions.

Let me know in the comments below how you get on.

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