Want More Sales? Become a better listener!

Ask the sales experts and they'll tell you that questioning is the most important selling skill a salesperson could have. But that's not quite right. You can ask questions until you're blue in the face but if you don't listen to what you have heard, the information is next to useless. Listening, i.e., comprehending what you've heard, is not something many salespeople are good at. This is because good listening is not something most people are born with. But the good news is that you can learn to be a better listener, particularly when speaking with a client or prospect by telephone. Here are 4 tips that will improve your listening and help you make more sales.

1.Stop everything and focus-Perhaps the single biggest cause of poor listening is that we get distracted and lose our focus. Speaking with a client is not the time for multi-tasking.

2.Be prepared to listen-Have everything you need at your fingertips. If you're not prepared, you're distracted while you search and if you're distracted your listening suffers.

3.Evaluate what you hear-On the phone, clients communicate in two ways: words and tone. What is significant here is that research shows that as much as 86% of a message delivered over the phone is through the tone of a voice. This is particularly important when it comes to buying signals and objections. You need to act on the tone and clarify.

4.Concentrate on the Main Message-Don't interrupt. This is also known as "active" listening where you are focused on the key and relevant points. Of course, the best way to make this happen is to begin your questioning with open-ended questions that get the client to open up so that you can "actively listen." Use phrases like, "Tell me about..." or "Explain to me..." or "Describe for me...." These questions invite the client to give you information.

At this stage, it is vital that you concentrate on precisely what the client is saying from two perspectives. First, from the client's perspective, understand that most prospects and customers tend to beat around the bush before they get to the heart of the matter. Sometimes it takes a minute or two before the client truly articulates a concern, a need or a key point. Give them that time to answer.

From the salesperson's perspective, some ask open-ended questions but they are NOT listening to the answer. Instead, they have their pitch ready and are simply waiting to speak again. In a similar manner, many salespeople fail to listen because they are preparing a rebuttal to a remark they have just heard. This often occurs when a client tosses out an objection. The salesperson hears the objection and busily begins to craft an answer instead of hearing out the rest of the concern. All too often vital information is missed because the salesperson was composing a reply. The trick is to note the objection and concentrate on the rest of the conversation so that nothing is missed.