ACTION 2: LISTEN ACTIVELY
Active listening is an action. It’s something you do; it is not a passive endeavor. Active listening means you are involved, engaged, and present during the conversation. It confirms that they are the focus of the conversation.
Your ability and willingness to listen demonstrates that you are engaged with them and care about the information the buyer is sharing. To listen actively:
• Pay attention. Use eye contact, eliminate distractions, and avoid multitasking.
• Respond to what is being said with sounds and movement. Verbal responses are especially necessary in telephone conversations.
• Focus on the person and watch for signals that show you their intent and emotion. These signals may include body language, tone, and pace.
• Remain open to the responses and hear their full answer before judging or responding.
• Take notes. Not only do notes serve as a reference later, making the notes slows your mind down in the moment so you listen better.
Listening actively allows us to converse and collaborate through the Investigate step. It keeps the conversation flowing smoothly. The actual skill of listening isn’t usually the problem, though. It’s more often the discipline and execution of talking less so that we can listen better. Often a “talking trigger,” something that makes you talk more than you should or need to, takes over. These triggers can be:
• Nervousness.
• Lack of confidence.
• The desire or need to prove ourselves.
• Uncertainty as to where to go next in the conversation.
• The desire to convince or talk someone into something.
• Not having been trained to listen!
To listen more, prepare for your conversations. (Yes, because preparation is key to being most effective and to eliminating the habits that kill sales, I’m going to discuss preparation over and over again.) Identify your talking trigger and eliminate it with proper Preparation.
If your trigger is nervousness when the person doesn’t respond to questions or is clearly in a hurry, prepare the list of questions you’d like answered—and then prepare a shorter list in case there isn’t enough time to ask them all. Start with the questions on the short list—and be prepared to ask for the decision to schedule the next meeting.
Sometimes, just forcing yourself to listen rather than talk—even if it’s to ask great questions—works well. Years ago, a client, Rick, referred me to a prospect and I was able to easily schedule the appointment using Rick as the connection. The one-hour telephone sales call focused on the buyer. I asked questions that I had prepared and forced myself to listen as I took notes and made verbal sounds of paying attention—uh huh, oh, and hmmm.
I paraphrased his responses and when he had an interruption and needed to end the call early, I asked to speak with him again, and he agreed. I hung up and then thought, “Oh, that was a waste of time. I never got a chance to explain anything to him and he has no idea what I do or how I can help him.” The following day, Rick asked me how my call went. As I was about to share with him my concerns about not getting a chance to really converse, he blurted out, “Well, whatever you did he thought you were brilliant!”
When you actively listen and focus all your attention on the buyer—and if you don’t let your triggers set your mouth in motion—your buyer will think you are brilliant and will want to continue the conversation.
Your ability, skill, and attitude toward listening are equally as important as asking the right questions. The combination of asking for the right information, hearing what they tell you, and then presenting a solution that addresses their POWNs is what wins sales.