“How far do we need to swing the pendulum to change behavior? I have been stealing shamelessly from Brian Tracy for decades where at least 70% is on trust and needs. Here you’ve raised the bar to 85% … will it be enough to get sales people to SHUT UP and LISTEN? Or, do we just give them muzzles?” ~ Bill M.
We certainly hear the lessons and the message at every single sales school event — listen, listen, listen. Yet, whenever I sit down with people and ask them about their number one complaint about salespeople I get the same response — they don’t listen. Obviously, they are not listening enough at sales school.
The source of the problem is multi-faceted. Hence, the solution has taken on many forms, as well. The three most prevalent issues are as follows:
- Selfish listening: Salespeople are so determined to find an opportunity to sell something that they are not listening to the issues, challenges, and problems their clients face. Instead, they are more intently listening for an opportunity to speak, pitch and promote their wares. When you take the “me” out of the conversation, all you have is “them.” By focusing on “them” and not on “me”, you engage in selfless listening — where the customer and their world is all that matters and there is no room for “me” in that equation.
- The need to be: Too many sales professionals believe or think that they need to be the expert or be the answer or be promoting. Not true. By virtue of the fact that your client has already made time to meet with you, establishes that they already believe in your abilities. Otherwise they would not have met with you. If you want to demonstrate your expertise, show them how well you understand and are listening by asking intelligent and probing follow-up questions. Want to impress your client — don’t tell them how smart you are show them how engaged and understanding you are. Use your brilliant probing skills to show how knowlegeable and capable you are.
- Getting to next: The next step in the sales process does not need to be pushed or pressed. The next step is something that, done intelligently, is defined by the client not the salesperson. Unfortunately, most salespeople are so conditioned to keep things moving that they aren’t listening, learning, understanding, and recognizing that there has been no relationship developed or real opportunity uncovered or real interest has been established. By pushing things along to the next step — a selfishly motivated act — the salesperson once again demonstrates that they aren’t listening to the situation they are merely pushing things along.
Sometimes muzzles would be more effective. It certainly would limit a sales professional’s ability to talk, talk, talk. Unfortunately, it would also prevent them from asking great questions, explore all the situational challenges clients face, and probe for a better undertanding of what is going on. Simple answer to the age old challenge — stop thinking about yourself and what you want out of this meeting. Engage in selfless listening and focus exclusively on your customer, their needs, their challenges, their issues, their interests and their definition of next steps. When you do that, you can only be listening and learning and your chatter will be minimized.