Listen

How strong are the selling skills of your team? How consistent and effective are they in front of a prospect or customer? And when was the last time you checked them out to see if they could actually improve any of their skills and effectiveness? 

The Problem In Believing That “Experienced = Trained” 

Do you believe that “experienced = trained?” The vast majority of sales managers actually believe that statement or they at least manage their sales team as if they believed in it’s accuracy. 

How do you train a newly hired sales rep? Most managers only train a newly hired sales rep on the technical product knowledge skills required in the job. They’ll also do extensive training on how to process and enter all of the administrative aspects of the job. 

When I ask sales managers “but what about actually training a newly hired sales professional on the “best practices” of selling?” Most answer with “well, since we only hire experienced sales reps we really don’t see the need to teach them how to sell. We assumed their experience in sales should have already provided them with those required skills.” 

And that’s alright with most sales reps anyway. The majority of experienced sales reps also tend to believe “experience = trained.”  

Whenever I get a chance to talk with an experienced sales pro I like to ask them a series of questions to better understand their experience level and to learn how strong and consistent their selling skills and structures really are. One of the first questions I’ll ask someone is ”So how much sales training have you had in the last twelve months?” 

How would you answer that question? The vast majority of otherwise experienced sales professionals when asked, don’t define their recent sales training efforts because for most they haven’t experienced any recent training. What they do answer back is ”Well I’ve been selling for 15 years!” “Experienced = trained!” Continue Article Online or Download...

            

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Listening is Overrated
             by David Yoho 

Listening is overrated when there’s no tangible result for either party. Sure, listening can make people feel important, maybe even cause them to like you, but that doesn’t necessarily provide bottom-line results. Put simply and bluntly, listening without intent wastes their time and yours.  

During years of field observations, most or many of the sales reps I’ve observed fail to direct conversations with the right questions or even speak with the right people. As a result, they’re often listening to insignificant chatter, flawed information or untruths. 

Ironically, every sales book says you have to be a good listener to be successful. That’s not true unless your definition of “good” eliminates income as a measurement.  I’ve met hundreds of six-figure earners – executives, managers and entrepreneurs among them – who aren’t “good” listeners.  Some succeed anyway because of charisma, brand, position, timing or exceptional verbal skills, among other reasons. 

Yet, I don’t believe you can be a GREAT communicator without effective listening skills. And every sales rep, executive, manager or business owner can become more successful by improving their listening skills. Just as important, your service and value to others is enhanced when you improve your listening skills. The secret is to listen with the intention of understanding others’ needs, wants and values.  

The key to listening with intent is to prepare the right questions in advance of every contact – even if it’s your 50^th contact with someone. This enables you to focus their answers on the facts, feelings, opinions, values and motives you need to serve them, yourself and your organization equally.

Prepared questions offer you the freedom to listen for unclear or conflicting responses, which require some sort of qualification. You can’t listen to what someone is saying if you’re thinking about what you’re going to say or do next. And worse, if you’re thinking instead of listening, it might appear as if you’re pretending to listen which could sabotage your entire effort (as it should). 

Here are three simple, proven recommendations: 

1.                  Document your questions beforehand and reveal your preparation subtly. They’ll see you’ve done homework and reciprocally, they’ll be more willing to give you their time attention. And it will build credibility, earning you more comprehensive answers.

2.                  Emphasize courtesy by asking permission to take notes. When speaking by phone, tell them you’re typing the answers or they may think you’re multi-tasking.

3.                  Qualify all terms, measurements and conditions. Don’t assume you know what they mean because you understand the definition of their words. And don’t pretend to understand. 

People don’t always mean what they say. They don’t always say what they mean. You won’t understand their intent unless you’re relaxed enough to listen for understanding. Many people listen just to calculate their next move; that’s self-serving. Intentional listening is healthier when you’re focused on the other person’s welfare. 

Listening doesn’t have to be overrated. The value is up to you.