Making Sales

Listening Helps

By: Lou Hampton

  With customers today more sophisticated than they were just 10 years ago, salespeople in every industry are up against a new set of challenges. No longer does a slick sales presentation guarantee a signed contract. In fact, anything that your customers perceive as a sales pitch will prompt them to immediately tune you out and seek another vendor.

    The fact is that to be successful in today’s highly competitive marketplace, salespeople need to learn an entirely new skill—the skill of listening. The top-tier salespeople know that sales is simply a matter of listening to what their customers perceive as the need and then identifying what their customers want from the exchange (the solution to their need). When you can respond to your customers so that the presentation is completely based on what they’ve told you, then you’re allowing your customers to sell themselves, thus enabling you to close more sales.

    If your listening skills aren’t on the mark, or if you believe you listen well and still aren’t meeting your sales goals, then... 

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