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The Importance of Listening in Selling

Written by: Colly Graham

Article Overview: The best salespeople were not necessarily the best talkers, they were the best listeners.

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The Importance of Listening in Selling

The state of the art of selling didn't change much from the Industrial Revolution to the 1970s. But it has changed dramatically since then. A consultant named Neil Rackham, in his book Spin Selling, made the first step from art to science in selling. After observing thousands of sales calls, he came to an interesting and unexpected conclusion: The best salespeople were not necessarily the best talkers, they were the best listeners. They listened first and talked second; they discovered the need before presenting a solution. This was the birth of consultative selling. Rackham found that the best salespeople had a much higher listen-to-talk ratio and that they used the classic journalist queries - who, how, what, why, when, and where - to keep the client talking.

A talker, however, feels that he or she can simply explain a long list of features of a product and eventually hit upon something the client likes. Here it comes...feature, feature, feature..."Stop me if you see something you like." But these are features in search of problems. It's called "dashing to the demo," "shotgun selling," or "spray and pray."

In some cases, the cause of this tactic is pride in product functionality; in others, technical salespeople believe that if they just show how smart they are, Clients will buy - whether they need the product or not. Linking the features to the benefits and the benefits to the business problem is left to the buyer.

The benefits of high-value solutions that touch multiple departments with a multitude of technical capabilities of differing priorities aren't easily discernible to the buying organization. If you don't help make the links to the client's business problems, then your competitor might - and you'll be outsold.

Many evaluations are effectively over before the presentation begins. The salesperson has either established preference from a previous sale or has been effective in the needs-assessment phase of this sale. Even if you know what the client's problem is (called "selling to anticipated needs"), it doesn't matter. Admitting that there's a problem helps buyers open up and makes them more receptive to suggestions. In a single sales call, this means probing and listening before you present. In formal presentations, this means conducting a needs analysis or survey before a presentation. Again, the process is quite natural to consultants, where the solution is defined by the problem.

The discovery or needs-assessment process provides three essential benefits:
1. It helps you determine whether you have a match before you ever present a solution.
2. It prevents presumptive selling - i.e., "How dare you present a solution? You don't even understand my problem!" It builds a better rapport between seller and buyer, because it compels you to listen.
3. A sales call that's usually shorter yet more effective, because it's focused on the needs of the individuals and the organization. Moreover, you are no longer presenting to strangers. You speak the Clients' language about their issues because you "out cared" your competitors by "out listening" them.

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Home > Sales > Colly Graham > The Importance of Listening in Selling
Article Tags: assessment phase, business problem, business problems, competitor, consultative selling, evaluations, industrial revolution, listeners, multitude, needs assessment, neil rackham, product functionality, salespeople, salesperson, shotgun, spin selling, talkers, technical capabilities, unexpected conclusion, value solutions

About the Author: Colly Graham
RSS for Colly's articles - Visit Colly's website

Colly Graham CEO of salesxcellence After graduating from college, Colly entered the field of accountancy however after five years decided to change his career direction in sales. First working for a Fortune 500 company in fast moving consumer goods, his career progressed from selling capital equipment, financial services to internet services, with a wide management experience in both telephone and field sales, concentrating on the recruitment, training and development of sales people, in this role he gained experience in designing and building a number of successful sales teams. Colly brings thirty years of practical experience of selling and his ability to empathize with sales people and establish immediate rapport and credibility as a trainer, (the accolade Colly receives from most sales people is “that he has carried the bag”). A licensed practitioner of NLP Colly trained with Richard Bandler in 1998. When I entered the field of sales, back in 1969, with local franchise holder for Pepsi Cola because of my lack of knowledge of any selling skills I set a goal, to one day, start my own training company. As my career in sales progressed becoming a sales manager, group

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