To Make a Sale You MUST Learn to Listen

Listening is something that I have personally found in the last few months I don’t know how to do effectively.  I’m trying to learn.  I also am learning that I don’t know hardly anyone who does effectively listen.  My wife & I are working on this in our own relationship and could only think

of one person we know who effectively listens.  This is an incredible skill to have.  It’s difficult.  It takes a lot of discipline.  If you can learn how to do this, will help every stage of your sales process, your relationships, your life, everything.  Let me give you a quick overview of effective listening.  Buy the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People on Amazon if you want to know more.

The following is a conversation illustrating how to listen effectively as pertains to merchant services: The merchant says something such as, “I’m so sick of switching to different companies.”

I’m going to restate what the merchant said using terms of “you felt like” or “you feel like.”  I could respond, “You feel like you’re constantly switching to different credit card companies?”  Now the position of the merchant is going to be corrected or redefined by the reply.

The merchant might say, “Well, not that I’m always switching. Just that every time I switch I feel like I get burned.”

Then I would respond, “You feel like every time a new sales agent sets you up with something, you’re the one who gets burned or something goes terribly wrong.”

Now the merchant further defines his or her meaning with this reply, “Not that it goes terribly wrong – just that the agent is never around to provide me with good service.”

To which I reply, “So you feel like the sales agent deserts you after setting you up?”

The merchant says, “Yes, that’s exactly how I’m feeling.”  You can see what I did there.  I’m actively listening because I need to understand what the merchant is saying.  I can’t accurately give you the entire explanation in this short time.  However, the general idea is as someone is speaking to you, you listen carefully to what is being said.  Then repeat back what the person just said the way you see it.  You want to further understand the way the person is feeling.  Once someone acknowledges that you understand his or her feelings, then you can address that concern.

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