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Are You Listening?

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Tues, 9/16/2014

When is the last time you were with someone when they asked you, “Are you listening to me?” Your attention probably wasn’t on what this person was saying because you were distracted in one of several ways; your mind was thinking about something else, you got a text, the phone rang, a TV show came on, someone else came in to the room when you were talking and interrupted, and so on and so on...

There are so many ways to not pay attention to a conversation. So how do you improve on listening skills? Just like other sales techniques, it takes practice and it takes time. First you must realize the importance of listening to your clients. What you learn in a conversation will be the key to an important sale. Many times it is not exactly in the words they say, but the underlying meaning of what they are saying.

So even if you have prepared questions for your client in a meeting to discover their needs, you must also be ready to go off into tangents that will find that underlying meaning. Then once you have learned enough you must also be able to shift your client back on target and get back into answering the original questions you developed.

When you have a client meeting coming up, ask an associate to practice with you on asking the questions and following up with additional questions. The more you are able to comfortably ask questions, the more you will be able to learn about your client. Practice can also take place when you are with family or friends. See if you are paying attention when they talk with you or is your mind drifting. This is not an easy thing to do but at the end of the day, to succeed in sales you must learn to listen effectively.

What are your challenges when it comes to listening? I look forward to hearing your comments. Until next time...