In class, we had three students sit in front of the class and be a salesperson to Professor Sweet. The first two students started the conversation casually and listening to the customer. After talking and getting the conversation started, the salesmen would switch to selling mode and stop listening to Professor Sweet, the potential client. It’s important to keep the customer engaged and ask them questions. This applies to rule #14 that we discussed in class. A prospect who is listening is no prospect at all. The best way to find a problem is to get the potential client to talk about their issues and the pain they face. Salespeople should follow the 70/30 rule: listen 70% of the time and talk 30% of the time. If you’re listening to the customer instead of talking, it can help the conversation be more comfortable and show that you care about their problems and want to help find a solution. Having the customer talk about their problems can help the salesperson see if their product will help solve a problem or see if they are a good fit to do business with. It’s a possibility that you will lose the customer if you talk too much and are focused on making a sale, rather than helping them. You won’t lose a sale by listening too much to the customer and you’ll build a stronger, trusting relationship with them.
By Rachel Goetz
testacr22 2 thoughts on “Listen to the Customer”
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Great post! I completely agree, it is so important to make sure you are listening and that you can never listen too much. That 70/30 rule is so important as a salesperson and is something that I think many overlook.
Having these ideas in mind such as the 70/30 rule is huge in sales and can make or break whether or not you make the sale. I also thought having the students come up was a good demonstration for how to properly approach the sale and not ask too many questions. To then have Professor Sweet flip the roles and show us how he thinks we should approach it was very beneficial.