What it means when you don’t listen

(By Colin Browne)

‘Listening’ as a sales skill is one that regularly comes up as being of special importance. If you listen, you learn, you can advise better, and you can strike up a sense of warmth that other salespeople – let’s call them the talkers – never can.

But while the benefits of listening are spoken about often, it helps to understand what those talkers are doing to themselves and why it is you should avoid their behavior beginning right this second:

When you don’t listen, it means you don’t care

If you’re in a relationship, you’ll already understand this. Nothing sucks as badly as not being heard because there is an immediate feeling that the person speaking over you has no time for, nor interest in, your needs.

It’s enough to break down relationships, and it is more than enough to ensure that a sale never gets off the ground. Ask questions, but don’t forget to listen, attentively and thoughtfully, to the answers.

When you don’t listen, you show them a lousy future

Unless you’re selling commodities which can come from basically anywhere, your prospect is evaluating not only your products, pricing and ability to deliver, but whether or not they actually want to give you, personally, their business.

Imagine they’re looking at a potential future with you in it and all they see is a talker who won’t shut up long enough to hear what they have to say. Would you like that vision much?