Listening Skills For Salespeople

This week’s affirmation is… “I am a great listener.  This week I will listen to what people have to say”

My affirmation for this week focuses on one of the key skills of selling and communicating…..being a great listener.

One of my mentors for many years has been Ron Willingham who wrote the program ‘Integrity Selling’.  Ron says that we can actually “listen people into buying”….that’s pretty neat I reckon.

But what does it take to be a really good listener?

It starts with our attitude and a simple affirmation like the one for this week – “I am a great listener.  This week I will listen to what people have to say.”

I often hear people saying to me that they have difficulty remembering names.  Have you ever been at a networking event and being introduced to someone and within seconds you have already forgotten their name?

Much of that has to do with an attitude.  Here’s a good tip – next time you’re going to a party, or a networking event, or whatever, and there’s a good chance you’re going to meet new people…..start with the attitude and affirmation “I’m going to really listen when I meet people and I will remember their names.”

Let me know how you go!

When Ron Willingham says we can listen people into buying, we need to complete the rest of the story to ensure it can result in a sale.

Our affirmation for this week is I am a great listener.  This week I will listen to what people have to say.  However, for people to be saying something for us to be able to practice our listening skills, we therefore need to remember that it is in the power of our questions that mirrors our value.

So the plan for this week – be a better listener than you were last week.  Ask better questions than you did last week….or at least, really focus in on your questions, the reasons you’re asking them (what value are your questions to your clients) and then where appropriate take written or at very least mental notes of what your clients say.

One final tip is to listen for the insignificant things that clients say in response to your answers.  It’s the things that clients say that might not seem significant to you at the time, but that if we make note of them….really hear what they’re saying, we might just learn some important things going on in their lives that we can appropriately use to demonstrate even more value and validate our true purpose of building trust relationships with our clients.

For example, a client might mention their teenage son is about to graduate…make a note of that and perhaps you could send their son a congratulations card.

This week become a leader of listening.