Active Listening in Sales

Active Listening from www.pixabay.com

Active listening in sales is crucial to the success of any salesperson. What is it? - Active listening is the practice of fully focusing on and understanding the words and needs of the customer, and as such, it is a key component of building strong relationships and closing more deals.

There are several benefits to actively listening in sales. Here are some examples:

First, it helps salespeople better understand the needs and concerns of their customers. By fully listening and paying attention to what the customer is saying, salespeople can gather important information and tailor their pitch or solution to better meet the customer's needs and/or wants.

Second, active listening helps build trust and rapport with customers. Customers want to feel heard and understood, and actively listening shows that the salesperson values their input and is genuinely interested in helping them. This can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

In addition, active listening can also help salespeople identify any objections or concerns the customer may have. By actively listening and paying attention to the customer's words and body language, salespeople can address any objections or concerns in real-time and provide the necessary information or reassurance to overcome them.

To be an effective active listener in sales, salespeople should practice the following:

• Pay full attention to the customer and avoid distractions, if you get distracted acknowledge this and start over,

• Use nonverbal cues, such as nodding and maintaining eye contact, to show that they are listening,

• Repeat back or paraphrase what the customer has said to confirm understanding,

• Avoid interrupting the customer or jumping to conclusions,

• Ask open-ended questions to gather more information and show interest in the customer's needs.

In summary, the role of active listening in sales is crucial to understanding the customer, building trust and rapport, and overcoming objections. By fully focusing on and understanding the words and needs of the customer, salespeople can improve their chances of success and build long-lasting relationships with their customers.

Know and Do can make your sales processes better. Get in touch with us we’d love to help.

The Art of Great Delegation

This week I had the privilege of making a presentation to fellow members of the Institute of Directors in Manchester, UK. I was asked to share how Directors could approach delegation in their business to be more effective in their role.

What fascinates me about working as a leadership coach and trainer is that despite everyone in the room being a Director, each person came with a different expectation of what they needed to explore around delegation. My professional challenge - and the fun part of our work - was to take my prepared presentation and weave the audience’s expectations into the hour. I managed to reference the legal issues, leadership styles, change management, making time, devolving authority, sharing responsibility, harnessing technology and dealing with growth; all the questions they were interested in!

Underlying, the techniques I shared to improve daily delegation I referenced two guiding principles. This was because having access to a technique to use is only one part of effectively deploying a skill; knowing the principles behind it allow you as a leader to adapt, develop and contextualize the technique. The two principles behind great delegation are:

1. Know the purpose. Delegation deals with the ‘What’ of business, the things that need to get done. However, starting with the what is not a leadership perspective it is fulfilling a management duty. Leaders need to be clear on ‘Why’ something is happening and ‘How’ it is delivered. So, if a Director were to ask me or my Know+Do colleagues to help them solve a problem around delegation we’d want to know the purpose of the business, its mission, its key targets, its values. Those why factors that drive behaviour, decision making and define success. Then we check out the how of a company - its key strategies and processes, its ways of organising itself and its 'internal ‘rules’. This is so we can place the delegation issue in context and how we solve that must reference why the business exists and connect with how it operates.

2. Leadership is a daily practice not a one time event. By this we mean everyday the people in, or connected to your business, will need you to lead them. People are not static, they change, evolve and grow. Businesses are dynamic, new sales arrive, the economy changes, the competition gets better. Delegation is therefore not something we do once and forget about; it is something we do and repeat. Finding ways to ensure we have sufficient energy, the right attitude and sustained motivation is crucial to leading a team, whatever its size or context.

In the presentation a great deal more was shared. Techniques on quick planning for delegation. Principles to measure a delegation strategy. Language in differentiating delegation levels. How to ask questions in the right format. But the principles to great delegation underpinned the practice: Know why your business exists and work hard on your skills as a leader. After all, as a Managing Director I know well shared with me just last week:

“Delegation only works well, if the one delegating works!”

For both principles I shared a template to map and assess the business and the leader. If you want to find out about these contact me on bernard@knowanddo.com and I can share the templates with you.