The ART of listening

The ART of listening

Elaborado por Ing. José Alberto Cárdenas

How important is to be a good listener?

• Do you deal with uninterested prospects?

• Do you lose your prospects interest during your sales pitch?

• Do you have problems with customers because they had differentexpectations of your product?

• Have you ever lost a sale because you offered something different thanneeded?

We’ve all been there, and we all need to improve our listening skills



• Modern buyers aren’t looking for sales people, they’re looking forSOLUTIONS

• The only way to transform our products and services to solutions for ourcustomers is to understand the problem, and the only way to understand the problema is to listen.

• How do YOU feel when a salesman calls ypu and ONLY talks about theirproduct? (Credit cards, phone companies, etc)

• Adressing directly the customers needs generates

empathy and trust.




According to research by Gong.io aboutsales call content, the top performers are the ones that let their prospects talk more.

In their analysis of more tan 25,000 sales calls, the 57%-43% ratio when the prospecttalks more proved to be the best whenclosing deals.

Listening = Customer focus• “It’s not what you sell, it’s how you sell it” This doesn’t mean you can sell

anything to anyone even if it doesn’t work or they dont need it, it meansfocusing your solutions features to your customers needs

• There is a huge difference between what we can offer and what customersvalue, in the next figure where both brands give a generic sales pitch with all of their products features which one is most likely to win the Project?

Product A Features

Customerneeds

Product B Features

What the customer seesVALU

E

VALU

EIR

RELE

VAN

TVA

LUE

IRRE

LEVA

NT

Listening = Customer focus

• What if we, Supplier A, switch the conversation to only the features that will be interesting for our customer, have our chances of closing improved?

Product A Features

Customerneeds

Product B Features

Regular sales pitch

Customerfocusedconversation

What the customer sees

VALU

E

VALU

EIR

RELE

VAN

TVA

LUE

The ART of Listening

•Ask•Reaffirm•Take Notes


Ask

• Ask more customer focused questions, rememberthat we’re not selling products, we’re sellingsolutions, but solutions to what?

• Asking does not mean turning your pitch into aninterrogatory, turn it into a conversation.

• Use conversational language:• My product -> Your needs• My solution is… -> Your problem is solved by…• I’ll focus on… -> Let’s direct our attention to…• I want to talk about… -> Let’s talk about…• I’ll explain how… -> We’ll understand how…


• If you feel like you’re loosing your prospects attention or talking to much, use rhetorical questions to keep them engaged in conversation, do you agree?

• The key question is: How can i help you become the hero?• The customers is always being measured, reduce downtime, minimize

costs, increase productivity, we ask this to help them become the hero, their success is our success.


Ask

Reaffirm

• It doesn’t mean just nodding and repeating the last thing the customersaid, it’s actually making accute comments on their answer and followup questions.

• The best way to get a point through is a story, reaffirm that youunderstand their problem by telling them a story about how you solvedthat specific need before, about how you empathyze their situation as you’ve been there, use the stories to work in your solutions bestfeatures into the conversation.

• But above all reaffirming is clearing all doubt and explaining in detailthat you fully recognize their expectations, and be honest about how farcan you fullfil them


• Storytelling or sharing your experience through aStory, is the best way to make an impact on the customer• According to research 63% of people remember stories after

a presentation, and only 5% remember actual facts• Data activates only two parts of the brain (language

processing and comprehnsion), storytelling activates seven(language, sound, scents, colors, shapes, movement, touch)

• It helps creating an emotional connection, and inspires people to take action.


Reaffirm

• “The cheapest ink lasts longer than the best memory”- Popular saying

• Taking notes helps the brain retain information specifically keypoints about a conversation, mainly because when we wirte itdown we actívate both hemisferes of the brain

• In a study made in a psychology school, some students were toldnot to take notes while the rest of them did, surprisingly bothgroups remembered the same amount of information, never theless, the ones that took notes remebered the key points of thelecture while the ones that didn’t take notes only remeberedrandom and scattered facts.

• Techniques for taking notes:• Outlining• Mind-Mapping• Sistema Cornell


Take Notes

• You can go way beyond just writing down information bymaking visual diagrams about the problem AND thesolution.

• Visual thinking and presenting helps projecting ideas and facilitates understanding, specially when language ortechnical knowdlege is a problem.

• During a sales call, whenever there are commitments madeby either side of the conversation notes are crucial to makeminutes or a MOU (Memo of understanding) to clarifyresponsibilities and mainly establish our solutions reach vs customer expectation.


Take Notes

EMPATHY

ACKNOWDLEGEMENT WISDOM

HONESTY

The true salesman does not sell “ice in the north pole”, he sells taylormade coats, treat your customers as you want your suppliers to treat you

If it can’t be measured it can´t be improved, the first step of any problemsolving methodology is identify theproblem, and we cannot do so bycovering our eyes to our responsibility.

Trust is as fragile as bothpartners honesty to each other,

let’s do our part

A master never stops learning.Sell with the knowdlege of an expert but

the mindset of an apprentice.


The ART of listening

Sales

Transcript of The ART of listening