Ideally, as sellers, we should only talk 30% of the time during a sales conversation and let the prospect or customer talk about 60% to 70% of the time. You want to make sales? Then you have to improve your listening skills!
However, in the real world, I find that many salespeople talk and talk without even listening to their prospects.
Without properly listening to your prospects, you might miss on what’s really important for them. And that means missing your sales deal.
Strategies for Improving Your Listening Skills:
1. Know what you’re listening for.
Go into the first conversation and figure out what can make them buy. Identify the top four drivers why people purchase. Listen for those and poke at those. Know what to listen for so you don’t just talk or be random.
2. Ask meaningful questions.
Instead of the yes or no questions, ask the open-ended questions like what, when, where, why, or how.
3. Follow up.
Don’t be afraid to ask a followup question. Try to really dig deeper into uncovering their real pain point. Use Toyota’s five whys where you keep on asking your prospects why until you get to the fifth why and you will notice you’ve uncovered their real problem. Try to do this exercise even in other areas of your life.
Episode Resources:
The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Morgan and Michael Lennington
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
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