Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, Zoom, Google Meet, and GoTo Meeting—no matter what program you’re using, videoconferencing has changed sales and opened up new opportunities.
But if your sellers lack active listening skills, the platform they’re using won’t matter. They might as well be using tin cans and a string.
It’s a basic truth of sales performance that boosting customer understanding leads to greater success. By asking insightful and open-ended questions, sellers can uncover valuable information about the customer’s needs, wants, pain points, and goals. This allows you to recommend solutions that meet their needs, making it more likely you’ll close the sale.
Here’s an easy-to-follow plan that will help your sellers improve their listening and customer communication skills.
- Discover what prospects want most by asking consultative questions and listening actively.
- Find out what the prospect will buy, why they will buy it, and under what conditions they will buy it.
The Difference Between Asking Questions and Active Listening in Sales
Unfortunately, many sales professionals struggle to understand the difference between “asking” and “listening.” Often, requesting a signature on an order form is the first question that some sales professionals ask. But when your team uses a consultative selling approach, these terms take on different meanings.
Asking: Ask enough of the right questions to improve the chances of closing the sale.
Listening: Pay careful attention to what the prospect says and what they really mean.
Countless sales professionals have been trained to use their listening time to think of what to say after (and sometimes even before) the prospect finishes speaking. To improve listening skills, that focus must change.
Sales professionals must lay aside their own interests to discover and satisfy the needs and wants of their customers. This single issue alone will make your sales efforts successful even where others fail.
Ask Open-Ended Questions
To truly uncover what your customers want and need, your sellers must be experts in asking open-ended questions.
Asking open-ended sales questions—and making an intention to listen to the response thoughtfully—allows your team to connect with prospects and customers and gather the information needed to recommend the best possible solution.
In fact, an open-ended questioning process can lead buyers toward a decision much more effectively since they’ll be verbalizing exactly what they need in a solution.
Focus on the Customer
Self-centeredness is never your sellers’ best interest. Conversely, no one would ever suggest that they lay themselves at the feet of every prospect, caring nothing about their own needs. Fortunately, the best way to serve your own goals is to put the needs and wants of your customer first.
If all your sellers talk about are your products, your product’s features, or your organization, don’t be surprised if they encounter strong sales resistance from the very outset.
If they instead focus on the prospect’s interests, needs and desires, and values, they’ll notice a remarkable difference in that person’s attitude. The care your sellers take to build trust and lay a strong foundation will pay dividends, because customers will trust them enough to open up.
Discover and Deliver Value
To deliver value to the prospect, your sellers must position themselves as strategic resources and trusted advisors.
What separates your sales professionals from a vending machine is that they have an opportunity to meet and respond to the widely varied and specific needs of each customer you serve. If the primary focus of your team’s sales approach is creating value for the individuals they meet, they will not only become effective value-based sellers; they will also become well-paid sellers.
To be a valuable resource, you must first discover what the prospect perceives as valuable. To paraphrase a familiar adage: Value is truly in the eye of the beholder. Your team’s selling success will rise in direct proportion to how accurately sellers understand the value system of your prospects. That comes from the fundamentals of selling: asking open-ended questions and active listening.
10 Ways to Improve Communication Skills
Here are 10 things your sellers can do to ask better questions, listen more actively, and connect with customers more effectively.
- Open your mind and ears to receive what the customer is conveying.
- Begin listening from the very first word, and give that person your undivided attention.
- Focus on what the prospect says. Avoid trying to figure out what the person is going to say or what you are going to say in return.
- Don’t try to read meaning into what you think the person is saying. Actively help the other person convey meaning accurately.
- Never interrupt, but be interruptible. Interrupting is rude. It also sends a subtle message that you are not serious about listening to or understanding what the person is really saying.
- Use open-ended questions to encourage people to talk and to clarify your understanding of what they really mean.
- Make notes of important points. As the proverb says, the palest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory. Look for connections between apparently isolated remarks as you look at your notes.
- Show that you’re paying attention. Look directly at your camera (or, if you’re having an in-person meeting, look them directly in the eye). Use facial expressions and other nonverbal clues to show that you not only hear but understand what they’re saying.
- Never react to highly charged words and tones. Hear the person out, then respond. Most people will cool down and begin to talk calmly once they vent their anger and frustrations.
- Control outside interruptions and distractions as much as you can.
Remember: Unless your sellers understand what a customer is saying and what the customer values, they won’t be able to recommend solutions for their greatest needs.
If you would like to improve your sales team’s questioning and active listening skills, contact The Brooks Group about our Conversations with Confidence sales training program.
