Communication is the salesperson’s responsibility.
Yet, in my experience, most misunderstandings stem from poor listening… and not ONLY on the salesperson’s side:
> people answer the phone while doing something else and it takes time to switch gears.
> there are LOTS of distractions in today’s business world from people walking past cubicles to instant messages popping up.
> sometimes it is that they didn’t understand because the idea is NEW and they’ve not though of it before.
There are lots of ways we, as salespeople, figure out the prospect/customer isn’t listening – the two I run into most often are:
1. they ask a question.
This may seem easy – answer it.
Yet, the art of bringing them back into the conversation is critical. Make sure any explanation/answer you give, ends with an open ended & insightful question to get them talking.
2. they make a statement which shows they weren’t listening.
Here you need to delicately bring it back BEFORE you give them information.
> That’s great! I know we’ve not spoken before and you probably aren’t aware…
> I completely understand and I have to apologize; I’ve not done a very good job representing…
> I’m glad you brought that up…
The key is to realize although communication is the salesperson’s responsibility, if the other person’s not listening – you have to engage their brain.
ps: if you want more on listening from the salesperson side check out: why is listening the most important sales skill?
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