Active Listening
As time goes on, sales tactics evolve and grow in order to better satisfy the prospect. Listening has quickly become one of the most important parts of selling. You simply cannot satisfy your prospects needs without knowing the problem that you need to solve. Salesmen who don’t listen miss the opportunity to uncover buyer needs and the opportunity to let the prospect know you understand their view, creating a positive perception. Below is a list of keys to help a salesmen focus on active listening.
- Truly listen to the prospect – Traditional salesmen often listen for a key word or a key need before they decide if their prospect needs their product. The new age of salesmen listen differently, they listen to the words and feelings that a potential prospect is conveying and listen through their language, tone of voice, and body language.
- Feed back what you just heard from the prospect – By repeating what has been told to you it really shows that you were listening and that you care about what they have to say. You must try to convince your prospect that they’ve been heard and understood.
- Confirm that you’ve heard them correctly – After feeding back what you have understood, simply ask if you have hit all the important marks. By repeating what this person has said you are confirming that you’re on the same page.
- Ask a relevant follow up question – After repeating what you have understood from the prospect you must then ask a question pertaining to the topic. It is important to resist asking closed ended questions. The key is asking open-ended questions that encourage your prospect to share more about their goals, challenges, and current plans.
Active listening is becoming more and more important as salesmen continue to learn new tactics. Listening can be very difficult and salesmen are probably having trouble transforming their tactics but it will pay off when they close the sale.
BoweryJE22
Active listening, not just listening is honestly so important. I think in today’s culture, it’s hard to find someone who is good at active listening, especially with our shorter attention spans. I can definitely see the benefit active listening can have on sales.
Great post! This was such a valuable reminder to not just sell, but to truly seek out the clients best interest through listening. More individuals should abide by this methodology.
Confirming that you understand everything they said is super valuable to not only show them that you fully comprehend them but care about what they have to say.