How to Set Yourself Apart Using Total Listening SPECIAL REPORT
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CORE LISTENING AND SALES SUCCESS Listening looks easy, but it s not simple. Every head is a world. CUBAN PROVERB How to Set Yourself Apart Using Total Listening
The Hidden Power of Selling Research has shown that we spend 45% of our waking hours listening. Yet most people forget that it s a critical communication skill. Top sales professionals tell us selling is listening. Many successful salespeople consider listening to be their secret weapon against competitors. Consultative salespeople use listening to create long-term business relationships by building understanding and trust. They see selling as a helping profession helping customers solve business problems. As one sage said, People never forget where they got good advice. The reward for always listening when you d rather be talking is wisdom. ANONYMOUS Good listening is the ultimate positioning tool. It assures your understanding of your prospects situations and issues. This knowledge helps you select products that closely fit your prospects needs. This attention to detail and deep understanding turns prospects into customers. When consultative salespeople are interviewed about their success, they cite many of the same qualities: They know their customers needs, their businesses and their industries. They demonstrate integrity, and customers trust them. They have strong internal networks and are able to get things done. They have positive attitudes and strongly believe in their products and their organizations. They listen to their customers. Top salespeople identify listening as their strongest skill. Sets You Apart Since so few people in business listen well, the mere act of listening to your prospects will set you apart. When you listen attentively, something else happens. You start to teach your prospects to listen to you. They unconsciously notice and adopt some of your listening behaviors. It s called the principle of reciprocity and is well documented by Cialdini, a social psychologist, in his ground-breaking book Influence. How to Set Yourself Apart Using Total Listening 1
Sales trainers have also observed that when salespeople listen, prospects feel like they know the salespeople better. You can test this observation yourself at a social gathering. Ask yourself: Of the different people I met for the first time, which were the individuals I felt I got to know, the talkers or the listeners? Most people pick the listeners. Why? The listeners stood out because they cared enough about you to listen to what you had to say. It s that simple and that powerful. The Hidden Advantage Listening effectively is simple, but not easy. If listening were easy, you wouldn t derive competitive advantage from perfecting this subtle skill. All things being equal, the better you listen, the more you will sell. Many salespeople aren t interested in their customers. Active interest and good listening are essential to selling. ROB RITTENHOUSE, SALES TRAINING MANAGER INKTOMI Listening is not passive, either. It s an active skill. A good listener will be tired after a prolonged period of giving their total attention to a prospect s story. Most buyers are not really interested in the mechanics of your offerings; they want solutions. Your prospects and customers hold the keys to the best ways to sell them. It takes good listening and questioning to discover those keys. Listening requires total attention. In the sales conversation, listening helps achieve these critical objectives: Establish initial rapport so the prospect is talking freely. Identify needs, problems and opportunities. Build a basis of understanding to help position your solution. The Consultative Sales Process Today s salespeople know that it s important to ask questions and get to know their prospects needs and preferences. This is called being consultative. However, many salespeople still jump the gun. Like some professional runners, they re anxious to start the race and talk about their products and services. They want to show prospects that they re knowledgeable before they really understand what prospects want or need. highgain.com 2
Most sales interactions can be described by these steps: Opening Qualify and clarify Summarize Recommend solution Reach agreement Of course, this is a very simple overview of the process. Some long-term strategic sales involve many different people, meetings and presentations and approval requirements. Some sales cycles are short; some are long. Most sales situations include questions and objections raised by the prospects, which the salespeople have to answer and overcome. But each sale s interaction involves our basic model in some way. The best salespeople are great listeners that s how you find out what the buyer wants. LARRY WILSON AND SPENCER JOHNSON, ORGANIZATIONAL CONSULTANTS Traditional Sales Interaction The traditional sales interaction involves the following percentages of total time being spent on each of the five steps: Opening 5% Qualify and clarify 20% Summarize 5% Recommend solution 55% Reach agreement 10% Consultative Sales Interaction with Total Listening The consultative sales approach with Total Listening involves a different percentage of time spent. Opening 5 10% Qualify and clarify 50%* Summarize 10% Recommend solution 20% Reach agreement 5 10% (*In some cases, it could be an even larger percentage of time spent.) How to Set Yourself Apart Using Total Listening 3
The lesson is simple and powerful. Successful, consultative salespeople spend more time listening to qualify and identify needs. They spend less time talking. This helps make them more efficient and focused when they recommend solutions and reach agreements with their prospects. It also makes their recommendations more compelling. In this program you will learn advanced listening techniques to help you focus on what your prospects and customers are telling you during every step of the sales interaction. Listening Leads to Understanding, Trust and Respect Respect Trust Understanding Listening & Responding You have control over your listening ability which can improve your understanding of your customers needs. This increased awareness leads to mutual trust and respect. highgain.com 4
Improving Your Listening Quotient There are three components to your listening development: Knowledge Skills Attitude During this program, we will work on all three. You will learn how to: Listen attentively to an entire conversation, even when you d rather be talking or doing something else. Identify and manage your Listening Blocks. (Everyone has them!) Use an advanced questioning technique to fully understand prospects needs. Easy listening exists only on the radio. DAVID BARKAN INTERNATIONAL LISTENING ASSOCIATION Achieve instant rapport by identifying and using the appropriate sensory language with difficult or quiet prospects. Employ an innovative note-taking method to make sure that you don t miss important clues and issues. Reflect and summarize to confirm your understanding and make sure that your recommendations will be accepted by the prospect. By listening effectively, you can turn more sales into long-term customer relationships. How to Set Yourself Apart Using Total Listening 5
The CORE Listening Skills Model The CORE Listening Skills model identifies the four key elements of Total Listening. The term CORE means the central, innermost, essential part. Total Listening is the ability to get to the core of the issues and listen for the entire message both content and feelings. Choose to listen Open the communication Reflect the message Expand the relationship All top salespeople use these four steps every time they listen. Good listening is a very powerful tool, and can change the dynamics of your prospect-client relationships. In order to listen well, the first thing you need to do is a little soul searching. This requires looking inward to examine how you listen to other people. Once you understand your listening strengths and challenges, you can start discarding old behaviors. From there you can start building on your listening strengths. This effort will help you improve your understanding of your prospects issues, and start to earn your prospects trust. highgain.com 6
CORE Listening: The Hidden Power of Selling One Day Program This one-day workshop is designed for 16-20 salespeople, and is highly participative. Seventy percent of the time is devoted to the participants, involving them in numerous learning activities. These activities include assessments, group discussions, video discriminations/discussions, case studies, role plays and action plans. All of these activities are designed to help the participants learn how to become better listeners and questioners. The course is designed so that participants leave with action plans. These action assignments help them and their managers (coaches) transfer skill practice to actual behavior change that makes a difference on the job. The program trainer or facilitator spends approximately thirty percent of the time asking questions, leading discussions, presenting concepts and skill models, clarifying the directions for different activities and making sure the participants are using their time productively. The program is fast-moving, engaging, highly participative and builds easy-touse skills. 5 Modules The workshop provides 7± hours of skill-building activity. The program is organized into 5 modules. They include: 1. CORE Listening and Sales Success 2. The CORE Listening Model 3. Open the Communication 4. Reflect the Message 5. Expand the Relationship Here s a brief description of each module: 1. CORE Listening and Sales Success. This module previews the program and underscores the importance of listening during the sales process. The introduction compares the traditional sales approach to a consultative How to Set Yourself Apart Using Total Listening 7
one that requires a high level of listening proficiency. The participants also learn about the Listening Blocks that impede good listening. Key Activities. The course members describe the importance of listening and the benefits of using the skill in sales. Participants define the responsibilities of effective listeners and speakers. Members identify Listening Blocks portrayed in video scenarios. They identify their own blocks and how to overcome them. 2. The CORE Listening Model. In this module participants are introduced to the CORE Listening approach and the first part of the model, Choose To Listen, and the skills that will help them listen with 100% attention. Participants learn the 6 attributes that make for effective listeners. Key Activities. Members take and score the Listening Practices Assessment. Participants practice the important skills that will help them Choose To Listen. These skill activities include Showing Up (how to be there in the present and totally focused on the prospect.), Attending To Business behaviors that tell the prospect that you re really listening, and Mind Mapping that helps participants take notes without sacrificing their ability to listen effectively. 3. Open the Communication. In this module participants look at the second step of the CORE Model. They examine the TEAM (Track, Encourage, Acknowledge, Match) skills that will help them open up the communication and keep prospects talking about their needs and problems. Participants also learn how to improve their questioning techniques. Key Activities. Participants practice the TEAM skills. They define and discuss the questions that they are currently asking and devise new questions that will help them probe more deeply. 4. Reflect the Message. Participants look at ways to reflect the message to tell prospects by their behavior and words that they are really listening. These skills include mirroring, paraphrasing and reflecting both content and feelings. Participants also learn how to summarize to assure that there is an actual meeting of the minds and that both parties truly understand each other. highgain.com 8
Key Activities. Participants perform a powerful role play activity that practices all the reflective skills and emphasizes the importance of summarizing to assure complete understanding. 5. Expand the Relationship. In this module the participants learn skills to help them get others to listen to them. Participants review the CORE Listening Skills Summary to make sure that they understand all of the skills and are comfortable applying them in sales situations. Key Activities. Each participant develops a mini-case based on an actual prospect/customer that they are currently seeing or have seen recently. The cases are used to perform role plays in which the participants get a chance to practice all of the skills. Participants complete action plan assignments (this is done at the end of each module) and discuss how they are going to implement these assignments. How to Set Yourself Apart Using Total Listening 9