You're struggling to close sales in direct sales. What's the secret to becoming a better listener?

Listening is arguably the most important skill in sales. The only way you can identify what’s important to your potential customer is to listen. How can you discover pain points? By listening. As salespeople we want to say the right things and respond in the best way but what we need to focus on more is listening.

Engage fully with the speaker, maintain eye contact, and nod to show understanding. Avoid interrupting and focus on their words. Ask Open-Ended Questions Repeat key points to confirm understanding. Put yourself in the prospect's shoes. Understand their needs, concerns, and emotions to build rapport and trust. Jot down important details and preferences shared by the prospect. Pause Before Responding Pay attention to your own body language, ensuring it conveys openness and receptiveness. This encourages the prospect to open up. Resist the urge to rush the conversation. If something is unclear, ask clarifying questions. This not only demonstrates your interest but also ensures a mutual understanding.

Becoming a better listener in direct sales is key to understanding your customers' needs and effectively closing sales. The secret lies in active listening, which involves fully engaging with the customer's words, asking clarifying questions, and demonstrating genuine interest in their concerns. Practice empathy by putting yourself in the customer's shoes and seeking to understand their perspective. Avoid interrupting and focus on absorbing the information they provide, allowing you to tailor your pitch or solution to their specific needs. Regularly reflect on and assess your listening skills, seeking feedback from customers and colleagues to continually improve and refine your approach.

I use to think success was me selling or telling the customer something! Now I measure success by getting them to talk and engage! Like you said having them share the “pain points”! So of course you have to be an “active listener” to benefit from that interaction!

It starts with having a genuine curiosity about your prospects - ask thoughtful questions that go beyond surface-level and truly aim to understand their unique situation, challenges and desired outcomes. Put your ego aside and resist the urge to prematurely pitch or make assumptions. Maintain strong eye contact, minimize distractions, and give them your full, present attention as they speak. Summarize and repeat back key points to confirm comprehension. Ask clarifying follow-ups that draw out additional context. Most importantly, listen with the intent of finding areas of mutual value creation, not just making a sale. Map their needs to your offerings, but be willing to reframe the discussion if their priorities shift.

I find it comes down to your intent. Are you listening with the intent to respond or are you listening with the intent to understand? When you listen to understand, that intent drives you to listen actively. It makes you more attentive, leads to more open-ended questions, leads to deeper conversation and provides you with meaningful information and feedback.

Tips to listen attentively: 1. Ensure you are in a noise-free, distraction-free environment - switch off mobile phones, ask not be disturbed, etc. 2. Start by asking open ended questions to encourage your customer to share relevant information. 3. Maintain eye contact during discussions. 4. Focus on the customer's words - make notes for remembering and easy recall. 5. Focus on the customer's body language & tone - non verbal cues help you understand the customer's true intentions. 6. Re-clarify or paraphrase in case of confusion in understanding. 7. End by asking close ended questions to reconfirm and recap information shared by the customer. 8. 'God has given us 2 Ears & 1 Mouth. Use them proportionally'. (Anon).

Listening means to participate- it's two way street. Active Listening Tips: 1. Mobile silent 2. Eye Contact 3. Forward Leaning 4. Notebook Out 5. Copious notes 6. Asking Questions 7. Rephrasing Questions 8. Answering Objections 9. Smiling, because you're closer to the Sale. 10. Saying " Thank You" to me and the customers : )

Antes de iniciar una presentación de ventas, y después de tu saludo, la escucha empática se vuelve crucial para tener una buena relación con tu prospecto. ?Qué me ha funcionado? 1. Rompe el hielo. No sólo tu cliente se sentirá más cómod@, ?tú también! Crea vínculos de confianza para que tu presentación sea 10 veces más efectiva. 2. Interésate genuinamente por tu prospecto. Investiga antes de reunirte con tu cliente potencial, intereses, gustos, etcétera. ?Haz preguntas sinceras y déjale hablar! 3. Comunicación no verbal. Mantén una postura abierta hacia tu prospecto, mostrando que tiene toda tu atención. 4. Asiente y retroalimenta. Cuando haya oportunidad, haz comentarios y complementa la conversación.

Listen empathically the LARK way : 1. Listen attentively to what the speaker is saying and also to what he / she is trying to say. 2. Acknowledge and mirror the emotions of the speaker through your words, body language & tone. 3. Respond sensitively. 4. Keep your preconceived notions and biases in check.

Strategic Listening is listening with intent to ensure that the discussion does not deviate from the original topic to other topics, till the purpose of the discussion is fully achieved. E.g. if the discussion is on trying to understand customer's need, then till the need is not fully understood the focus must not shift to other discussions. In case of deviation, which does happen due to lack of focus and distractions, conscious and deliberate effort is made by all involved to 'bring the discussion back on its original track'. Strategic Listening is also a way to 'dig deep' rather than 'spread wide'. In Strategic Listening, listeners are focussed on understanding a topic in great depth & detail rather than at a superficial level.

Me encanta la escucha estratégica. Mi ex jefa de ventas siempre dibujaba un vendedor ideal con 2 orejas grandes y 1 boca peque?a. Estos son mis consejos: Reduce un poco la ansiedad explicándole a tu prospecto qué harás. Dile que tendrás que hacer varias preguntas para encontrar la solución que mejor se adapte a sus necesidades. Sondea en varios niveles. Tendrás que preguntar 2 o 3 veces sobre el mismo tema, ya que difícilmente en la primera obtendrás la información necesaria para entender su proceso de decisión. Encuentra "el dolor". Aquel motivo real de la decisión de tu prospecto. La toma de decisiones va acompa?ada de una emoción: "Necesito, "Quiero", "Tengo problemas para", "No puedo", etcétera. Recuerda, sin dolor, no hay venta.

Alot of times when people aren't really hearing the other person it's because there's a second dialogue going on in the background: Trying to remember the next thing we planned to say, making sure our body language *looks* like we're listening, etc... All of this distracts from actually listening. Instead, try these two things: 1) Bullet point the main topics you want to hit and write out the top 5-10 questions you want to touch upon and have these notes in front of you during communications beforehand. 2) Then focus intently on the other person while he or she is speaking, the intonation, pacing, volume, expressions, and body language. (Just make sure you're not staring into anyone's soul.) You can refer back to notes as needed.

Considero muy importante prestarle más atención al rompimiento del hielo con tu prospecto. Si creas un lazo de empatía inicial, encontrarás mucha menor resistencia al momento de hacer aquellas preguntas necesarias para tu proceso de ventas, por ejemplo, salarios y gastos mensuales, compromisos con tarjetas de crédito, estatus de buró de crédito, entre otros. Cuando la persona "no nos conoce" difícilmente proporcionará esta información al ser demasiado personal, sin embargo, si creamos un buen vínculo con nuestro cliente potencial, se sentirá en confianza para compartir todo lo necesario para ayudarle a encontrar el mejor producto o servicio. Crea lazos, demuestra genuino interés, antepon sus intereses a los tuyos, ?y tu venta estará hecha!

Lead to a solution not WITH a solution. You can only do this if you are actively listening to your client. This means putting aside what you want to sell and hearing what issues the client has

Be a problem solver. This involves listening to the client's pain points and issues. You can then demonstrate how what you have to offer solves their problem.

Simple but true.. 'Practicing the pause' - is something to consider in all forms of listening. Whether it be professional or personal.