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  • April 21, 2018

Don’t Sell Me, Listen

January 9, 2016 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

dog on the phoneListening, often confused with hearing, is one of those critical skills required in selling. When you aren’t listening carefully to what buyers are telling you, things sour quickly.

Hearing and listening are NOT the same things.

Many people think them one and the same, but they are definitely, distinctly, different.

Hearing is biological. Your hearing is on autopilot. Hearing is always occurring, most of the time, subconsciously. Hearing the words doesn’t mean you understand what someone is really trying to tell you.

Contrast that with listening.

In communicating with others, listening creates an atmosphere of caring and positive problem solving. Critical in selling. Make no mistake about it, listening takes work. It requires conscious effort to listen to what is and is not being said. If you are NOT consciously listening, conversations can—and do—go south. This is why sales opportunities die on the vine.

We have two ears and one mouth for a reason.

As a whole, the sales profession still gets a bad rap. Fair or not, there is a bias buried deep in the collective human psyche of the image of the “traveling snake oil salesman,” out to hustle every unsuspecting person they meet. That bias is also perpetuated because the hustlers do exist.

Selling is about solving problems. That requires listening. That’s a big problem for many salespeople who are notorious for:

  • Talking too much.
  • Talking all about themselves, their company and their product.

I read a blog post recently where the author suggests that the top salespeople hear and suggest solutions while the other 80% are only listening (as if that’s a bad thing) and then responding. Totally backwards as just about every bit of research on the topic of hearing and listening will support. Top sellers listen to understand the buyer’s needs. Once those needs are fully understood, that’s when the top 20% work with buyers to create a solution. Together.

Seek first to understand.

For many years, I’ve been a fan of Stephen Covey’s landmark book The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. Habit #5 is applicable to the topic of listening. Covey reminds us to seek first to understand, then to be understood. He didn’t say plan your side of the conversation while the other person is talking. He didn’t say jump in with guns blazing to pitch your product the moment someone takes a breath. He said, “Seek first to understand.” Buyers do want to buy, but they are tired of being “sold.” Think of them as people first, not simply a revenue source.

Personality styles play a role in listening.

Successful selling requires good communication skills. Listening is a big part of the equation. For years, I’ve used my knowledge of Inscape Publishing’s DiSC® behavioral assessment and model to foster better interpersonal communication. The key lies in your willingness to adapt your communication style to meet the needs of someone else. In sales, that someone else is your prospective buyer.

How DiSC works

Unlike the Myers-Briggs personality assessment, which identifies your top personality traits, the DiSC assessment examines behavioral and communication style. Our personalities are largely formed by the time we are five years old and rarely change throughout our lifetime. Behavior, on the other hand, is situational. That means we choose how we respond to our environment or to other people.

The DiSC model is made up of four quadrants. Though each of us is a blend of the four styles, we all have a primary style, followed by a secondary style. For example, my primary style is High i. It is called “high” because on the DiSC scale, it ranks the highest of the four quadrants. My secondary style is “D”. Combined, these two styles are the essence of my natural approach to communication. If you know that about me, you know what I care about or what I fear. That understanding will lead to more fruitful sales conversations. When you learn to identify the clues that provide insight into the behavioral style of your buyer, you have the ability to adapt how you communicate with them. In sales, this knowledge is priceless, so let’s look more closely at the four quadrants to understand what they mean.

D – Dominance

People with this style are primarily focused on results and maintaining control of their environment. They are fast-paced, questioning and skeptical, expect results, and have little patience for useless chit-chat. A phrase a former boss used sums these individuals up perfectly: Be brief, be bright, be gone.

When talking with people with this style, cut to the chase. If they ask you a direct question, they expect a direct answer. It might be uncomfortable for you if that’s not your natural way of communicating, but trust me: delving into detailed minutia confirms for them that you are not listening to what they want.

i – Influence

Unlike the Dominance style, the Influence type’s first priority is the personal relationship.  They are positive, upbeat, and want people to like them. Collaborative team players, they move quickly and their gestures are often animated. When you sit down to meet with them, they find it rude if you roll right into business. Friendly banter goes a long way with them.

When endeavoring to entice them to buy from you, you have to listen carefully. They will often—without meaning to—either gloss over important details (like budget), or be overly optimistic about next steps (quick decision). They are big picture thinkers who prefer not to be caught up in details, and do not assume that the friendly conversation means an eminent sale.

S – Steadiness

These folks are sort of like the office camp counselor. Others turn to them when they have problems on their mind. Harmony at work and a routine they can count on is extremely important to them. Resistant to change, this style avoids taking risks. Like I’s, they care about people first, and they never want to feel as if they are letting anyone down. The ultimate people pleasers, it can be difficult for them to clearly express what they want or need.

When you are in a sales conversation with this particular style, it will be important for you to gently draw out of them what you suspect may cause them to resist making a decision. From a sales point of view, people with this style often prefer to stick with the status quo. You need to be prepared for a lengthy sales cycle as you help assuage their fears.

C – Conscientiousness

Finally, individuals with the Conscientiousness preference are focused on quality and accuracy. They are your detail people. Spreadsheets and data will be key to them making a buying decision. When looking for those visual clues to help you determine their style, you will notice that they move at a moderate pace. In meetings, they often don’t say as much, preferring to have time to think before they answer.

In a sales situation, be prepared for the questions they will ask and the detail they expect you to provide.  Expect the buying decision to take time as they dig deeply into the data. These individuals, like D’s, aren’t the touchy-feely types. They view bubbly optimism (High i) as hiding something. Before walking into a sales meeting, you need to prepare a detailed agenda and send it ahead of your meeting. People with this style like to be prepared; they don’t appreciate being caught off guard.

Awareness matters

Sales meetings can become very uncomfortable when there is a lack of awareness of the style preferences of others. When you shift your communication approach by focusing on what’s important to the person you are meeting, ultimately, you close more deals.

Finally…

Dedicate yourself to listening proactively to buyers when they grant you precious time on their calendar. Give them your full attention. As Dale Carnegie said, “You can close more business in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.”

 

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: disc, listening, personality, sales, sales management

Are You Talking More Than Listening?

December 4, 2014 By Barbara Giamanco 2 Comments

Phone call with a canProbably. It is a common occurrence with many salespeople. After all, they finally got the buyer to agree to a meeting, now it’s time to sell. Right? Wrong.

Before the Internet and social networks, buyers relied on salespeople to educate them about their product or solution. These days, buyers are as much as 70% through the initial research stages before they engage sellers for further conversation. This presents a problem for the salespeople who, when they get the meeting opportunity, waste time going back to the beginning. In other words, they want to roll into their feature/benefits pitch, but the buyer has been there done that. Now to be fair…not all information on the Internet can be trusted, and you do need to know that your buyer truly does understand what you offer. I think of this as validating what they already know versus assuming they know nothing.

Buyers are more interested in working with salespeople who operate at a higher level than those who merely read off a spec sheet or bore the buyer with a demo. Highly consultative salespeople listen carefully to what the buyer has to say. They are also the ones who spend the time learning about the buyer, what they care about, the challenges they face, as well as do their homework to better understand the company and the buyer’s industry as a whole. In doing so, sales meetings are highly productive and demonstrates to the buyer that their time has been valued. Time is something in short supply for buyers. They have too much on their plate as it is. If you are the seller who can give them real value for the time invested with you, you win.

When it comes to selling some things have not changed. Sales leaders want:

  • More leads in the pipeline
  • More leads converted to qualified opportunities
  • The sales cycle to shrink so that deals close more quickly

I personally believe that bullets 2 and 3 could significantly improve if sellers mastered one particular skill. That skill is listening. Selling is about solving problems, and that requires listening, which is a big problem for many salespeople who are notorious for:

  • Talking too much.
  • Talking all about themselves, their company and their product.

When a potential lead presents itself, the first critical step is to qualify. You have to be sure there really is a potential for business before investing your sales time. Getting a fast no is the second best thing to securing a quick yes.

One of the reasons leads are often not well-qualified by salespeople is because they think if someone agrees to a meeting – that’s a qualified deal. Not even close. You need to know if the buyer is being driven to buy because of a mandated priority to change something. You need to know if they have budget and can afford your fees. You need to know what the decision making process is and how many others need to be involved. To get the answers, you have to ask the questions and then listen.

The problem with listening is that much of the time people are simply waiting to pounce with their reply. Active listening requires setting aside the sales agenda to be truly present in the conversation. If you are working with someone qualified to make a purchase, it is important to be listening to them and responding quickly to their needs throughout all phases of the sales cycle. Ultimately, this leads to speeding up the process and deals close more quickly.

When someone contacts me about the possibility of purchasing our social selling programs, I do not pitch the moment we say hello. I also don’t waste time talking about my company. They’ve spent time checking me out already. What I spend the time on in a meeting is discussing their objectives, the problem they are trying to solve, what an ideal outcome would be for them after the training, etc. About 15-20 minutes into the conversation, with me doing very little talking, we are usually then brainstorming ideas for a program that would meet their needs. I want to paint a picture for the buyer of what’s possible. And I’m able to do that because I’ve already researched them and their company. I’m able to talk about their business with them and show that I cared enough to prepare myself and not waste their time. That’s how sales are won my friends.

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: listening, sales, sales management, social selling

No, Sales is Not All About Listening

February 14, 2014 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

Guest post from Rob Ferrucci today. I met Rob in a LinkedIn sales group and started following his posts. I’m delighted to share his thoughts about listening and its role in selling. Enjoy!Phone call with a can

Being a sales presentation coach I am focused on helping sales people be more effective when they are doing the talking. As a result, I am often reminded by other sales people that sales is “all about listening” that it’s “all about asking questions” that I have “two ears and one mouth and I should use them in that proportion.”

Now, I agree that listening is a critical tool in sales, but I sometimes feel that there is such an emphasis in sales today on listening that we don’t sufficiently appreciate the importance of skillful speaking.

For a sale to occur the prospect and the sales person have to take turns speaking and listening. In the early stages of the process the sales person should do most of the listening but at various points it becomes our turn to educate the prospect about how we can help them. In her book “Perfect Selling” Linda Richardson writes “Dialogue is the tool of your trade. Dialogue is what your customers do to let you into their world. Dialogue is how you shape the customers’ perception of you and the value you bring.”

Effective communication is a two way street. It is about reciprocity and sharing. According to research “Communicators continually affect and are affected by each other in a system of reciprocal influence” (Adler 2006). So of course we want to ask questions and listen in order to understand the prospects’ core competencies, their issues and their goals. But keep in mind that they also want to understand our core competencies and our solutions and they want to hear how our product or service can address their issues and goals.

Strong presentation skills (whether used in formal presentation or conversation) are the most effective way to communicate our value to our prospects. In his book “The Boxcar Millionaire” sales expert Tom Black says “The best tool you have is your words. What comes out of your mouth determines your success or failure. If this weren’t true everyone could send out brochures and power point presentations and make six figures.”

At some point in the sales process you will have to start doing more talking than listening because the prospect wants to know how you can help them. They need to understand your solution to their struggles or your plan to help them achieve their goals.

I’ll refer again to Richardson who, in “Perfect Selling” has a chapter called “Leverage” dedicated to the concept that once we understand the prospects’ situation it is now our turn to deliver the solution. Richardson writes “Once you have prepared, asked questions and listened the task remains to use that knowledge to tailor what you say.”

In other words, asking smart questions and doing lots of listening gives us a competitive advantage only if we then combine what we’ve learned with persuasive presentation skills and communicate a solution that the prospect decides will improve their situation.

Therefore, we must be able to communicate these things to the prospect in an effective and organized way. First because they expect that from us and second because it is impossible to close a sale without providing the prospect with logical and persuasive reasons why they should buy from us.

Sales trainer Patrick Hansen has written that “This stage (presentation) most influences the success or failure of the sale.” This is because it is when we are presenting or speaking that we prove to the prospect that we understand their situation, this is the payoff to the prospect for answering all our questions. But more than that, we must then prove to them that we have the right solution to improve that situation. Without providing back to the prospect a solution that addresses their specific needs what exactly is the purpose of asking all those questions?

Sales trainer and best-selling author Terri Sjodin identifies three characteristics of the top sales producers 1) the belief that they can be a top producer 2) great listening skills 3) excellent presentation skills. For Sjodin listening and presentation or speaking skills cannot be separated but are both essential for sales success. This is because without effective questions and listening skills a persuasive presentation cannot be developed and without a persuasive presentation value cannot be communicated.

So by all means ask questions, gather information and look for problems that you can solve. But when you’re done asking questions and listening make sure you know how to lay out a persuasive case for your solution…and start talking.

rob_0552

Rob Ferrucci coaches sales professionals on how to design and deliver persuasive sales presentations. Using seminars, workshops and personalized consulting Rob guides sales teams through his 9 step process for designing and delivering a presentation that will not only inform but also persuade the prospect and position the sales person to close the deal. Rob focuses on effective presentation structure, persuasive techniques and the effective use of power point. A life-long sales representative Rob is also an award winning public speaker and presentation coach. Website: robertferrucci.com Email: rob@robertferrucci.com Phone: 203 482 4777

 

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: communication, listening, sales, selling

Ignoring the Instructions

May 17, 2010 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

This morning, for about 5 minutes, I ranted, raved and stomped around my office wondering why some people either cannot or will not follow specific instructions. Why do some people just insist on doing it their way, no matter how many times you ask them to “follow it exactly as I’ve described here”?

For some things, like running your sales territory, maybe you don’t need specific instructions that detail what you should do with each and every minute of your day. Not all team members will need to do things the exact same way in order to achieve results. But for other things, like when you are working with technology, as an example, following the exact instructions usually means something either ends up working, or it doesn’t. Some instructions are meant to be followed!

The final irony…

The same individuals who blatantly ignore instructions, invariably will point the finger of blame at someone else when things fail to go as planned.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Business, listening, sales

Who Do You Serve?

November 11, 2009 By Barbara Giamanco 1 Comment

James Arthur Ray, author of Harmonic Wealth is someone I have admired since first hearing him speak in The Secret.lodge His subsequent interviews on Oprah were inspiring, and I have benefited greatly from Ray’s philosophy about living a life of wealth. His business is built on the theme of teaching you “the secret of attracting the life you want.” At this moment, I’m not sure that James Arthur Ray is happy about the circumstance he’s attracted into his life.

On October 8, 2009 Ray’s empire started to crumble when two people died during a sweat lodge ceremony held in Sedona, Arizona. Another ceremony participant died a week later and close to twenty other people were injured. What was meant to be a personal cleansing experience turned into a death trap for some and an emotional, life changing experience never to be forgotten by the others there that day.

Put aside for a minute the fact that there have been a number of complaints registered against Ray’s organization by people injured during his programs. Perhaps if someone had taken the collapse of a male participant in a 2005 sweat lodge activity seriously, the tragedy four years later could have been avoided.

I have to wonder if Ray’s rapid rise in the world of motivational “guru”dom began to cloud his judgment. It seems quite possible that he has not been listening to the concerns of his community. No safety personnel on sight during an exercise that clearly had the potential to become a disastrous problem is unthinkable. In the crush to up the competitive ante in the world of personal development products, did Ray’s organization go too far with the Spiritual Warrior vision quest retreat? It would seem so. From the looks of things, Ray’s business is shutting down. At least temporarily.

The tragic deaths of people who expected nothing more than to improve their lives during that Sedona weekend with Ray are a reminder of the harsh consequences of what can happen when a company has forgotten who they serve.

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: customer loyalty, harmonic wealth, james arthur ray, listening

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