If you’re not a deep listener — I mean, really focus on what the prospect is saying instead of how to formulate a response, you will not overcome the barriers to effective sales communication in your sales conversations.
“One of the best ways to persuade others is to with your ears – by listening to them”
– Dean Rusk, Former US Secretary of State
The Old Brain is New
How to be an adviser, be neutral and above all, be trustworthy! Effective business communication & sales conversations sits above the spoken word more than it does on the written word. Above the spoken word is an even greater power in the art of influencing which is based not on how they talk…. but how they listen. It’s worth a moment to first look at the impact of the spoken word. The human brain size has been trending upwards since 2 million years ago present. The “old brain”, which stated by a leading neuroscientist, Robert Ornstein, in The Evolution of Consciousness, is that or “old brain” which is well named dates to 450 million years ago.
Words as we know them have only been around for roughly 40,000 years. Before words, humans communicated with sounds, grunts and verbal decrees. In fact, the “written word” has only been around for 10,000 years! That means the brain is 45,000 years older than the written word.
What did you say
What does this have to do with listening? It has a lot to do with it! In the business world today, we still lean on the written and spoken word but our brains still process information in the “other” side or commonly called the “reptilian” brain. That is where emotion vs. logic resides. So, listening helps us to feel engaged, be understood, and made to feel secure. In other words, listening is part of our emotional world. The sales people and executives who “deeply listen” have deeper client engagement and thus, can do more business with their prospects, clients, even family and friends.
Put Your #2 Pencil Down, Time is UP
Overcoming barriers to effective communication. Listening is an extremely critical component of selling & sales conversations. Industry data and studies have proven that immediately after the average person has listened to another person speak, they only remember only approximately half of what was heard—no matter how prudently they thought they have listened. As time moves ahead, approximately in 8 weeks, the typical or average listener remembers about 20% of what was spoken.
Sales training does not cover this skill and if so, never to the extent necessary. There is a wide gap between effective sales people that listen better than those who speak. They prospect better, qualify better, sell better and close better! To be an effective listener, sales people need to apply listening skills that are either developed through life or work experience or training. If a sales rep has not learned these skills, their ability to understand and retain what they hear in sales conversations will be substandard. This can impact all types of reps whether they are average or a high-performer.
What You Get
Some of the motivation to have listening in your sales conversations & as part of your meetings, sales training, and practice sessions for delivering presentations may reveal:
When Sales reps, according to industry data, have undertaken listening training, they improved up to 25% of remembering what was said
Sales reps with higher-performing aptitudes could potentially progress up to 40%
If the Sales reps undertook some type of formal adult education, they would have the best gains in listening ability. Potentially, they could improve their listening by 200%
How you as Sales Reps get to this point
What are the steps to overcoming barriers to effective communication? (1) Make listening something everyone in the company works on every day. Make it a habit — in all conversations — not just, sales conversations. (2) Talk about it with your peers to make it a team effort to help deepen the awareness. Discuss the importance of listening in sales conversations. (3) Read, study and practice it! It is not that difficult.
Listen as a way of life, and do it deeply. It will change your relationships, success and all facets of your life.
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”
– Stephen R. Covey
Want more? Next steps in improving your sales conversations
Be prepared! Formulate the questions for your prospect ahead of time.
Jill Conrath says, “You’ve probably heard that being a good listener is the key to being successful in sales. While I agree that it’s essential, I’m here to tell you that your ability to ask good sales questions is even more important.” — Jill discusses how you can be a great listener as well as drive the conversation towards closing the deal in her video “One Easy Tip for a Successful Sales Conversation“.
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