Why is listening important in sales?

We’ve all seen that movie where the sales guy gets into a meeting without a structured plan but suddenly breaks into an overcharged, elongated pitch, speaking without a break without any interruptions from anyone and at the end of it, the prospect is so mesmerized that they sign the deal on the spot. Of course, everyone who watches these movies imagine that’s how sales professionals operate in real life too. The reality is quite the opposite though.

The subject of this blog is on how to be good at listening. While the subject might seem pretty simple or downright dumb. After all who needs a lesson in listening? Haven’t we been doing that from since we were toddlers? And you maybe right to some extent, but the real thing to note is, have you been doing it right? Listening is one of the most underrated skills in a human being, more so for someone in sales. This skill is so important that it’s somewhat baffling that it’s not often talked about as a must-do in sales.

For those who are still skeptical on why we are even discussing ‘how to listen’, here are a few ways that this simple skill is normally overlooked. All of this is with the sales professional in mind:

1. Using the example from the movie listed above, sales people are conditioned to believe that, if the prospect has to buy from you, then it’s you who has to do all the talking, speaking about the product/service, explaining the features, answering objections etc. With this in mind, more often than not, the sales person, instead of paying full attention to the customer, is constantly thinking about what to say next and in this process misses a wealth of information that can help him/her with an edge on the deal.

2. Interrupting the customer by putting in a sentence or two, or by constantly agreeing and saying things such as  ‘yes’, ‘of course’, ‘I understand’, ‘got it’ etc. While this might seem as a good strategy to show that you are glued into the conversation, it breaks the thought process of the customer whereby he/she is not able to fully communicate their point of view.

3. Daydreaming or blankly staring at the other person while not concentrating on their words at all. While I wouldn’t recommend doing this anywhere (a lot of people blame their spouses for doing this), doing this with the customer will not only lead you to no results but will probably stop you from getting another meeting with them.

Now that we know the most common things that cause a disruption to this skill, let’s figure out the things that will make you a good listener.

1. The First thing is to do this deliberately: A lot of amateur sales people don’t even recognize this to be an issue and continue to ignore this skill at their own peril. Only when you are conscious about it, will you pay attention, else it’ll be just lost in one of the things that never gets done. It’ll feel a bit discomforting in the beginning (like any other skill you have picked up in the past), but do it a few times and it’ll start flowing in naturally as the time goes by.

2. Focus not only on the words of the person but also on their body language: One of the reasons a sales person is on the move is because the advantage a face to face meeting gets, is unmatched by any other medium out there (in times when you can’t get to a physical meeting, read on the next best ways to talk to your prospects and customers in one of my earlier blogs). Body language of a customer is as important (if not more) than the words they are speaking, hence concentrating on it will give you vital signals.

3. Capture the important information: It’s nothing but natural to miss out some points from any conversation, especially when the conversation is long. It’s always a good habit to take notes. This should be fairly simple when you are on the phone with the customer, but can get tricky when you are right in front of them. At that point, take permission to note down the key points, stating that you don’t want to miss out anything important.

4. Get feedback from the customer: Repeat yourself in such a way that you are not just stating everything verbatim, but conveying that you understood the conversation. This is an important point because it shows that you were involved and were listening intently. This also helps with the follow-up which comes next.

5. Follow-up: Now comes the time when you can put forth your questions. If this is something that you do often as part of the job, it’s okay to ask close ended questions. If not, it’s better to keep the questions open-ended, so that it gives the opportunity for the other person to fill in some of the details that were previously missed. Also it does not put your opinion in front of theirs so early in the sales cycle.

6. Don’t fill in the pauses: Most human beings in day to day life are very uncomfortable when there is a pause during a conversation or while delivering a speech. It’s precisely due to this fact that people tend to come up with fillers like ‘you know’, ‘like’, ‘essentially’ or just plain ‘aah’. And we all know how distracting it can be. The same phenomenon is repeated when a conversation is on. As soon as there is a pause, someone tries to break it by saying something. But, if you are in sales, this is a golden opportunity to just be silent. That’s right! As uncomfortable as the experience is initially, go silent and you’ll hear the other person pitch in to break the silence and often the words spoken during that time can give you golden nuggets that will convey the real issue at hand.

CONCLUSION:

Listening is a crucial skill, which will help you uncover and understand the problem you have to solve, which essentially is the job a sales professional sets out to do. Incorporate some of the techniques listed above and see the difference in your next deal pursuit. Happy selling (or rather listening)!