Selling Skills in Competitive Markets
Listening Constructively.
By Mwenda Kirera.
A study of the behavioral characteristics of the best sales people was published a few years ago by Dave Kahle a renown sales management trainer and One of the not-so-surprising conclusions was this: The best sales people “listen more constructively” than their more average counterparts. I just came across some research that confirmed what many of us in the profession of educating salespeople have known for years: That purchasers would be “much more likely” to buy from a salesperson if that salesperson would just “listen” to the customer. The survey found that some of the worst offenders were experienced salespeople.
Listening is one of the four fundamental competencies of a professional salesperson, and yet, the profession is, in general, so poor at it that most customers remark on our inability to do it well. a look at vacancy ad in dailies you will see more and more companies put emphasis on other sales competencies and leaving out listening. A good talker with outgoing personality fitted very well in the conventional description of a sales person. Many sales people in most companies today are oriented to talk and talk to customer until the customer/ prospects drops dead or buys!
Moreover, salespeople today are so much driven by targets and with a lot of whipping from the sales managers to hit the quotas that listening to customers has become secondly. Why is listening such a powerful sales competency?
1. Customers ‘pain’ can only be identified by digging beneath the surface of a customer’s needs and uncovering deeper and more powerful needs and motivations. This is an integral part of sales person and will separate mediocre from serious sales people. It doesn’t take any skill whatsoever to pick up an order or to write down a list of what the customer says he needs. You