By understanding your salespeople’s natural fear of qualifying, you can better coach them to ask these seven critical questions early in the sales cycle. Their productivity will ultimately improve, and you will achieve more sales in far less time.

Why Don’t They Qualify?

There are two reasons why even veteran sales pros lapse into working unqualified accounts. The first is tactical. Salespeople, who typically employ a highly political style, don’t want to offend a prospect by asking questions about decision-making, spending authority, and budgets too early in the sales process. They want to make friends first.

The second and primary reason is psychological. It is part of the typical salesperson’s psychological makeup to want to be liked. And most salespeople are very likable. Unfortunately, it is more comfortable in the short run for the salesperson to build a relationship with the wrong person than to ask questions that may alienate the prospect.

Succumbing to Temptation

The nature of the sales job reinforces this fear of early qualification. Because salespeople face a lot of rejection, they are vulnerable to the song of praise and positive feedback from their prospects.

For the prospect, it can be almost like having a congenial (and free!) employee doing problem analysis and preparing the way for the prospect’s solution. For the salesperson, it provides frequent strokes. And because the relationship is good, it is natural for the salesperson to assume that they will eventually make the sale.

Of course, if the prospect is not legitimately qualified, it is only a matter of time before both parties realize that the salesperson’s solution is not a fit. But by then, the salesperson has wasted valuable time that they can’t get back. Even worse, they may have wasted additional helpful resources, such as sales and technical support, throughout this process.

Coaching Your Reps to Qualify Sooner and Smarter

It is reasonable, therefore, for the sales manager to require and verify that the seven critical qualifying questions are answered early in every sales cycle.

By all means, this should be done before your company commits sales support or technical personnel to the sales effort. This is especially important in longer sales cycles or in deals involving more expensive products.

A good time to do this is during the forecast and review sessions that most managers schedule regularly.

During these meetings, confirm that each salesperson is asking the “W” questions (what, why, when, and who) to qualify both the prospect company and the individuals within that company.

What’s the Real Need, and Why Now?

1. What need(s) does the prospect have that your solution can meet? Can your salesperson clearly articulate those needs to the prospect?

2. Why would the prospect be willing to spend x dollars for your product or service? Has it been budgeted?

Timing is Everything: When Will They Take Action on the Presented Deal?

3. When does the prospect plan to implement your product or service? For many products and services, implementation, not the close date, is the key because it is the ultimate purpose of the buying decision. It also focuses on the customer’s perceived benefits, not the salesperson’s sales forecast.

Who Are The Decision Makers?

4. Who will decide to buy the product or service?

5. Who are the decision influencers who can bring pressure to bear (positive or negative) on the person who will make the final decision?

6. Who has the budget or spending authority to implement the decision? Don’t confuse decision and spending authority. They may not be vested in the same person.

7. Which decision makers have your salespeople called on so far? It should be all of them!

Train Reps to Ask What Everyone Else Is Afraid To

Given these questions, there are only two skills that your salespeople need to qualify properly. The first is confidence. The second is questioning skills. Good questioning skills can quickly create confidence.

Before making a call on a prospect, you want your salesperson to get the answers to as many of these seven critical questions as possible. Resources could include the prospect company’s website or past sales representatives who have contacted the prospect company, among others.

The amount of information that can be collected in advance will vary for each prospect. But without fail, once your salesperson is in front of someone in the prospect company, he or she should ask bold, direct questions:

“Do you have the authority to implement this decision?”

“Has this item been budgeted? Does it need to be? Do you have the funds available?”

Your salesperson may not always receive the answers that qualify the lead, but it is better to walk away from a sales cycle that will lead nowhere.

How to Reach the Real Buyer

Teach your salespeople to persuade the influencer to introduce them to the decision-makers. That retains the relationship with the influencer while opening an opportunity to the decision-maker.

If they must, they should bypass the influencer’s authority without permission. This will almost certainly alienate the influencer. But if the sale is going nowhere, your salespeople may have to take that risk.

Ask yourself: Can our sales strategy overcome the loss of this influencer? If the answer is yes, it’s a reasonable risk that they should take.

The post 7 Questions That Top Salespeople Ask Before Wasting a Minute appeared first on ConectUS Wireless.

Simply put, it’s a fundamental model that you can use as a metaphor to help explain the way prospects govern their inner decision-making.

It’s true that a potential buyer will profile several things in the background while evaluating an offer. Many little decisions are made along the way that lead up to the BIG yes or no final decision.

Some of these are subconscious thoughts while other times one may even notice their own mind chatter. However, in any case, a decision process is in action.

In the situation where a prospect is evaluating a sales offer, here is an overview of events going on deep inside the prospect’s mind.

While responding to the offer, the prospect instinctively invokes a scoring system, which helps in evaluating the offer.

We ALL have this judgment system inside of us that we respond with.

This Inner Score Keeping System occurs mostly behind the scenes as we don’t focus on the inner process. Although it is transparent to us, it’s still there.

It deals with the balancing scale of acceptance and rejection. When we buy, it assists us in weighing our decisions based on emotions and logic.

When positive emotions are triggered in a sales offer, they theoretically score acceptance points, which are intended to collectively add-up over rejection. Rejection points always lean toward discouraging the buy.

Thus, in this virtual score-keeping setting, points equal positive or negative measurements of emotions (or logic) in proportion to the sales offer. This inner-judgment that we invisibly process, determines the outcome of the offers we evaluate.

We, as the prospective buyer, keep calculating this inner score in the background. The sales copy attempts to win us over by scoring maximum acceptance points, provoking the action to buy.

You know when you get a gut feeling ‘to buy or not to buy’, this is our inner score keeping system I am talking about. It regulates our buying behaviors and helps us make buying decisions.

Thus, when a prospect interfaces with a sales letter offer, it instinctively prompts this decision making process. It all comes down to a final response to the offer.

Ultimately, the prospect will either accept the offer to buy… or reject the offer and leave.

Hence: The Inner Score Keeping System.

The overall message we are suggesting here is to learn to think like a buyer if you want to get on the other side of the sale… the selling side.

Of course we all have plenty of buying experience. But, since we do no not usually think about the process when we buy, we miss the boat on knowing what actually makes us buy.

In other words, when we buy, we are not considering all of the elements that add up to the final buying decision. We just buy or pass on the offer.

However, there is much to be learned from this and thinking like a buyer is by far the best way to unlock your prospect’s mind to make the sale!

Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below.

The post Unlock Your Prospect’s Mind From The Inside appeared first on ConectUS Wireless.

What’s holding them back? If you are in the top twenty percent of your profession you probably already know the answer. However, if you are not, ask yourself this question.”Do I want it badly enough?” Answer it honestly. Did you answer with a yes? If you did. think of how you ‘felt inside’ when you answered. If you felt nothing much, you have the answer as to why you are not performing in the top twenty percent. You don’t want it badly enough!

If you did, you would feel the passion and excitement. You would scream out YES and mean it with all your being. Passion and the excitement that accompanies it is the ‘rocket fuel’ for your success in virtually any situation in life.

When one lacks passion, or as some may call it, the burning fire inside, they will become mentally and sometimes even physically lazy when faced with obstacles that block their success path. Lacking passion, they will lack the needed willpower to dedicate the required time, resources, and energy to succeed.

You can’t get your passion from your family. You can’t get it from your manager, although most believe they can instill it. You can’t even get it from great sales trainers. You can’t get it from sales courses, seminars, or sales books. These will all encourage you but they can not ignite your passion fire for your personal success.

Your passion comes from within you alone! Find the source of your passion by examining your core values. Discover what means the most to you in life and you will discover your passion. Once you do, you will be able to make the decisions, take the necessary actions and stay focused to the point where success will be easily attainable. With your passion ignited, nothing will be able to stop your quest for success. The great thing about life is that you get to decide how you will experience it. You get to decide if you will just coast through your life or live it with excitement and passion, at work and at home.

Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below.  We look forward to talking to you soon!

The post Success in Selling – Do You Want it Badly Enough? appeared first on ConectUS Wireless.

Sometimes a small mistake can turn off a client and cause negative thoughts and attitudes. So, I would like to recommend a couple of books on the subject of sales for you to read. They complement each other well. The first is:

Winning Moves – The Body Language of Selling, by Ken Delmar, 1984.

The book has a great subtitle, “the keys, strategies, moves, gestures, expressions, style and aura that work for winners.” Delmar suggests that religious leaders, politicians, actors, trial lawyers and top sales people all have specific behaviors in common. If we can emulate these behaviors, we too can be successful.

Among the topics he discusses are how to maintain composure and an aura of trust, limit stress, feel relaxed, self-assured and confident. Imagine disarming prospects by improving your voice and body language to promote accommodating and listening prospect engagement. Potentially even winning over hostile leads with open body language and calm tone of voice. Learning to look alive on camera, command a room, and to quell anger – its all covered in this great book. The second of my choices is:

How to Master the Art of Selling Real Estate, by Tom Hopkins, 1986.

Hopkins opens his book by explaining what society expects of a real-estate salesperson. He then works to explain how to modify audience expectations to deliver encounters that will encourage prospective customers to engage positively. He writes about prospecting, qualifying, verbal techniques, telephone sales, open house techniques, asking for commitment or offers, and how to close the sale. Next, how to present the proposal and how to maintain a referral network from happy customers and their friends. There is also a section on staying organized, scheduling and planning. The final chapter is how to keep a score card of your successes; tracking sales, money made, net-worth and goal setting. Above all, he stresses maintaining a professional attitude at all times.

Reading these two books, and applying their ideas should aid you in increasing sales while, at the same time, making more friends.

Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below.  We look forward to talking to you soon!

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The post Building Business Relationships appeared first on ConectUS Wireless.

This is fairly easy if you’re dealing with a business, you can just do some research on the internet about company background, etc. If you do house calls then you can check out the neighborhood, type of house, what car is parked outside, how neat the garden is, etc. All these things will give you some idea of your client’s character and how to deal with them. But what if you’re a Timeshare rep on the cold line? You never know who’s going to be sat in front of you until they arrive in reception and your names called Right? WRONG!

Let’s look a bit deeper into the type of person who attends a timeshare presentation.

The way they’re brought into the resort can tell you a lot about what type of person they are long before you meet them. Here’s an example:

Imagine for one moment your on holiday with your wife/husband its Sunday morning the first day of your holiday you’ve missed breakfast because you arrived late last night and overslept so you’re just stepping out of your hotel to find a little bar serving English breakfast when suddenly out of nowhere a young lad or girl appears and once they’ve established you’re on holiday and recommended a good bar down the road they suddenly produce this handful of scratch cards from which you pull the star prize! Now to claim this prize you have to get straight into their car or taxi and go to the resort immediately as there’s only one-star prize issued every day and you wouldn’t want someone else to get it would you? Now bearing in mind you’re in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language and you haven’t found your way around yet because you’ve just arrived. Would you get in the car of a complete stranger on the spur of the moment not knowing where they’re really going to take you just to pick up a star prize?

How many of you said “No way”? It doesn’t make logical sense, does it? And yet every day, somewhere in a holiday resort around the world hundreds of holidaymakers do exactly what their Mums told them never to do. Why?

The excitement of winning something (The star Prize),

Greed (getting something for nothing)

Fear of loss (If we don’t go now, someone else might get our prize).

Those three emotions were stronger than the fear of getting in a strangers car in a foreign country where they don’t speak the language. You have to hand it to the OPC’s (Off Premises Canvassers) they are the best closers in the world.

So what does that tell you about the person you’re going to be dealing with today?

As long as you can get them excited enough about owning your product, create the greed factor by offering them more than they expected and finally play on the fear of loss emotion buy mentioning the special deal that they won’t get if they don’t join you today, you’ve got a new owner, haven’t you?

It still amazes me how many Timeshare reps accept the “We never make a decision on the day” excuse. All you have to do to squash that objection is gently remind your clients of the fact that it’s not a decision it’s a simple choice and they chose to get in a car or taxi and come down to the presentation today in a matter of minutes because they obviously felt that the benefits outweighed the disadvantages. “So what you’re really saying to me John and Mary is that I haven’t shown you enough of the benefits of owning my product for you to make an educated choice yet?” and then get straight back into what part of the product they need more information about and isolate it down to the genuine objection.

Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below.  We look forward to talking to you soon!

The post Creating Urgency – Use These Three Powerful Emotions To Close The Deal On The Day! appeared first on ConectUS Wireless.

1. A superior solution

You may have a superior solution over your competitors, but it is no guarantee that you will win the business. The key is to highlight the value your solution will create for your client.

This is done by focusing on the benefits your client will enjoy with your solution, rather than the features. Unless your client has a clear perception of how your solution’s features will translate into benefits for them, you run the risk of your superior solution being weakened.

Specifically, you should carry out the following:

• Draft a proposition that identifies the value your solution will create and use this to open up discussion with decision-makers.
• Obtain the support of the decision-makers whose personal interests are most closely aligned with the value you will create.
• Identify the decision-makers who may be left behind or suffer personal loss from your solution. Give them a win where you can.
• With a strong solution, you are likely to be delivering value at a number of points. List these points and assist your client to use them as a checklist to evaluate other contenders.

2. A price/cost advantage

Once again, just because you have a strong price/cost advantage, you shouldn’t expect to automatically win the business. There are other important factors that must be addressed to support your price advantage. These include:

• Identify the decision-makers who are most concerned with cost and build their support.
• Identify what your price/cost advantage makes possible for your decision-makers and sell that future to them i.e. spending less with you may free up money to do something else. If you have the price/cost advantage, those other things may only be possible with your solution. Therefore, they become elements of your value proposition. Highlight and sell that fact.

3. You were the first to open dialogue

In some industries being the first to open up the dialogue can bring great rewards. Most significant is that you have time to plan your business development strategy while your competitors are playing catch up.

To further enhance your chances, consider the following actions:

• Offer to write the tender (if there needs to be one). This is a great opportunity as you can tailor the tender to include the areas where you know you will deliver value. Some caution is required for this method, however, as some industries may view this as unethical. In government tendering, for example, you would almost certainly be disqualified for doing this and it would compromise your supporter’s reputation. So maintain caution and remain ethical at all times.
• Acknowledge that even though you proactively opened up the discussion, your client will probably have to explore other alternatives. Facilitate this evaluation and stay as close as your client will allow. It will happen with or without you so your strategy is to preserve your front-runner status.
• Anticipate what advantages your competitors will have and prepare appropriate responses.
• If your front-runner status gives you a time advantage, use it to paint a picture of life with your solution for your client and sell that future to them.

4. Strong credibility

Credibility comes from a number of sources:

1. Personal credibility – you may hold special qualifications that make you an expert in your field or maybe you have a history of always delivering on your promises.
2. Corporate credibility – your company may be renowned for its products or services.
3. Past Performance – credibility may come from strong past service or product performance with this particular client.

Depending on the source of your credibility, you can perform the following actions:

• Research past performance and draw out relevant case studies.
• Identify beneficiaries of your past performance to uncover a broader range of supporters.
• Seek testimonials from your supporter base.
• In your discussions with decision-makers, get them talking about the outcomes of your strong past performance and the value you created. Words that come out of their mouths will be much more convincing than words coming out of your mouth.

5. A deep understanding of the decisions maker’s motivations

It is important to consider both personal and business motivations for making a decision. Analyze the personal impacts on all the decision-makers, rather than focusing solely on the business aspects of your proposal.

• Identify who will win personally if your solution is chosen and sell that benefit.
• Identify which decision-makers may face a personal loss if your solution is chosen i.e. could their position be in jeopardy? If this situation exists, see if you can make an accommodation for their future e.g. taking them into your business. Whatever your plan, make sure you identify these risks and deal with them effectively.

While coming from a position of strength gives you a huge head start, closing the deal requires you to identify and maximize your strengths throughout the sales process.

Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below.  We look forward to talking to you soon!

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The post How to Use Five Core Strengths to Win Business appeared first on ConectUS Wireless.

STEP #1: SELL TO YOUR MARKET

The first, and perhaps most important, the key to improving your sales ability is to know your target group – whom you want to sell to. A well-crafted sales pitch keeps the target market constantly in mind, carefully tailoring expressions and words to appeal to that group. If your target group is young children, for example, your pitch should be geared towards selling to that group – with simple language, bright and colorful marketing, and vivid imagery. When selling to a business, however, clearly outlining what you have to offer, and displaying strong facts or statistics packs more punch than a colorful description.

STEP #2: LISTEN TO YOUR MARKET

Being open to feedback and experimenting with wording can bring a mediocre sales pitch to a powerful level. Many salespeople will simply talk over the customer in hopes to overwhelm them into a purchase, but being more open and attentive will give you an instant advantage. Listening to your customer also puts you on their side, and makes them feel that you sympathize with them – no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. When you listen to your customers, you will better know how to make them listen to you, and how to hone your sales skills to match your market.

STEP #3: KNOW YOUR PRODUCT

Whether you’re selling real estate or Barbie dolls, it is essential to truly know what you are selling. Knowledge of your product gives you an immense advantage over a salesperson that is simply “giving their pitch.” Being connected with your product also allows you to be even more connected with your customer, allowing you to answer questions and converse with ease.

STEP #4: SET GOALS

More than almost any other career, success in sales is dependent on YOU – your attitude, your effort, your ability, and your motivation. Setting goals for yourself gives you something to reach for and adds another level of action to the rhythm of your work. It is important to continually challenge yourself, setting realistic goals that will push your performance to the next level. Try setting goals on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis – and as you keep track of your performance, take notes on what works and what doesn’t!

STEP #5: HAVE FUN!!

As cliché as it sounds, your enjoyment of your job comes through to every customer you speak to. If you have a bad day, the customer feels that as well. So keep yourself energized, getting up and walking around, brainstorming creative ways to approach the same things, and getting connected with your customer and your product. Your attitude is everything – it will determine your energy, ability, and success.

Following these steps and maintaining a good attitude will put you well on your way to being able to hone your sales skills and improve your performance. Your drive, your determination, and your connection to your customers will make all the difference in establishing you as a top seller. A career in sales is challenging and rewarding, giving you the power to make every sale a success, and even earn a six-figure salary in your first year – it’s all up to you!

Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below.  We look forward to talking to you soon!

The post Hone Your Sales Skills appeared first on ConectUS Wireless.

Salespeople sometimes make the mistake of assuming they understand the motive behind a prospect’s question and jump right into answering the question, only to find they’ve been set up. Savvy prospects may use tricks like the trap and test question, designed to box a salesperson into a corner. Here’s an example:

Prospect: “Do your sensors have fast response times?”

Most salespeople who sell sensors with fast response times will respond proudly and quickly without thinking.

Salesperson: “Yes, our sensors respond in milliseconds”.

Prospect: “Well, we don’t need a response and don’t want to pay more for something we don’t need”.

Smiling slyly, the prospect knows they have just boxed the salesperson into a corner.

A smartly trained expert would have asked a reversing question instead, something like:

Salesperson: “Well, actually, that’s a great question. I don’t get that question too often. Our sensors… please, tell me, do you need fast response times?”

This reverse response is called the “start-stop reverse”. Did you notice the start-stop? Let’s break down the reverse so you can see.

“Well actually, that’s a great question (stroke). I don’t get questions too often. (another stroke) Our sensors (stops – the salesperson looked like they were going to answer but stop and ask another question) Please tell me (softening statement) do you need fast response times?” (reverse question)

This technique comes across as spontaneous to the prospect and throws them off, but in reality, it is “prepared spontaneity”. It’s another very effective way of getting prospects to loosen up and reveal some pain. This technique also helps you stay out of the traps that prospects may try to lure you into, throwing you into a box, and keeps you in the game. You still have a chance to make a deal.

An expert salesperson should analyze the prospect’s question to understand their true intent, before offering a response. When you begin to master the reversing techniques, you will do this without much thought, and reverse your prospect into trusting you and sharing the pain. If there’s enough pain, and you have the solution, your sales numbers will increase dramatically.

These reversing techniques are awesome, but be smart, and don’t overdo it. If some ask what time it is, you don’t have to say, “great question… why did you ask me that at this time?” It is okay to just look at your watch and give them the correct time!

By the same token, if prospects ask the same question twice in a row, you must answer it. Don’t try to reverse it again. If you do, you’re going to break your bonding and rapport and maybe even make them angry. But (and it’s a big but), if prospects do ask the same question twice, you can and should reverse after you answer the question:

Salesperson: “Our response times vary. We have sensors that respond in milliseconds and others that have response times up to 15 to 20 seconds. Can you tell me why you asked?”

Reversing is a powerful selling technique that will help you uncover your prospect’s pain. Make sure to use it only when the prospect feels safe and you’ve established bonding and rapport. Add Reversing to your sales toolbox and you’ll have an effective technique that’ll help your prospects relieve their pain. And as you know, Pain leads directly to the Money.

Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below.  We look forward to talking to you soon!

The post Open Door Questions appeared first on ConectUS Wireless.

Here are three ways to enhance your listening skills:

1. Make the speaker feel comfortable and important by being courteous and respectful;
2. Show your attentiveness to the speaker by nodding your head or saying, “yes” or “I see” from time to time;
3. Listen between the lines to detect when someone is being dishonest or evasive with you.

By honing your listening skills, you can catch hints in your speaker’s voice, attitude, or body language that indicate a lack of interest or enthusiasm for your product or company.

Many clients aren’t selling or recruiting because they are not listening to the truth when they hear it. They simply hope that what they are hearing isn’t what it sounds like. Our distributors or associates may miss the “not interested” message completely because they either don’t want to hear it or really don’t hear it because they are so focused on what they intend to say next.

Listening Types

Reflective and paraphrase listening will assist you to communicate to your prospects that you are, in fact, listening to them and are aware of their concerns and points of view.

Reflective listening is repeating some words your prospects or customers use as you listen to them speak. Reflective listening builds rapport in three ways:

1. It shows that you are paying attention and understand what the speaker is telling you;
2. It keeps someone else talking long enough for you to evaluate whether they are a prospect who is serious or just curious; and
3. Paying attention and listening is a good investment of a few minutes of your time in the interviewing stages.

In paraphrase listening, you paraphrase what your prospect says. I teach my clients how to interview their prospects to see if they are people they would like to work with. Many people confuse “interview” with “interrogate.”

By practicing the shared listening technique, you will find that all of your questions get answered without your prospects feeling they are under a microscope. Shared listening allows you to turn a questioning process into a conversation.

Developing a conversation, rather than asking one question after another, is a great way to get a person to open up. Your prospects will feel more comfortable revealing information to you if they feel you have something in common and lets them see you as a real person.

Listen closely and make brief notes as your prospects share in your conversation. You will soon discover your prospects’ motivators – or lack thereof – as well as their “hot buttons,” which you can repeat back to them when it’s time to as for a decision or close.

Continue listening even after your new distributor or associate has signed their application. You’ll be able to recall names, places, and other information with little or no effort because when it was first given out, you paid attention.

Are you interested in selling Verizon Wireless services? Call us at (855) SELL-VZW or fill out the form below.  We look forward to talking to you soon!

The post Listening Skills – Pay Attention With More Heart Than Talent appeared first on ConectUS Wireless.

The master prospectors, however, teach themselves to hear at a different level. They hear what people are really telling them. I teach that 20% of your time in conversation should be spent asking and answering questions; the other 80% should be spent listening to what the other person is saying and not saying. You can learn more by listening than you ever can by talking. “Talk and you lose, but listen and you learn” is a saying I coined recently.

Through working with thousands of marketers in the past several years I have witnessed many good people doing most of the fundamentals pretty well. Most people do a lot of what I call “telling and selling,” synonymous with begging and convincing. These people tell all about their great product and opportunity. Their prospects feel like they are being sold and the message is sent – they have to do the same thing also. The prospects and customers get bored and confused.

In a period of silence, I see most people break the code of “the first one who speaks loses.” The salesperson can’t stand it and jumps in inappropriately with a comment instead of waiting for the prospect to talk. They should have been asking questions, listening, and determining the prospect’s problems, desires, and interests. I went through this phase as well. I used to believe that “I could sell anything to anyone; Ice to an Eskimo”, or I had “the gift of gab,” and all the old sales clichés and adages I had been taught. Are you guilty of this?

Almost all of the people I have worked with start out this way. I have learned that by asking and then listening, your prospects will tell you what you are supposed to do. They let you know if they are curious or serious, and if they are suspects or prospects. This usually happens in the first thirty seconds.

Listening begins by learning how to read people by the energy they are emitting. Do they come across as excited and enthusiastic or do they sound lifeless and ready to go to sleep? Are they aggressive from the first words out of their mouth? Are you able to sense their negative or skeptical body language? I can usually size all of these qualities and traits up in the first fifteen to thirty seconds. The fatal mistake average prospectors make is they assume everybody “needs” their product, and they assume they know what the customer wants. People get frustrated when you talk too much.

I have learned that effective listening provides valuable information and assists me to build relationships with my clients. People love to feel listened to! Listening makes people feel special! Have you ever been in the middle of a conversation and the person you are talking to continually interrupt you? Doesn’t this annoy you? This usually stems from someone proving they have to be right or get the final word in. Are you guilty of this? Great listeners who become great prospectors learn that the “less they talk, the more they make”, and they also learn “how to say less to more people.”

Most people don’t really have anyone in their lives who really listens to them without interrupting or judging them. The point was well expressed by Dr. Elton Mayo, who said “One friend, one person who is truly understanding, who takes the trouble to listen to us as we consider our problems, can change our whole outlook on the world.”

Listening is attention, a stroke, a hug, a kind word. When you listen non-judgmentally and non-critically, you sell yourself as worthy of respect and affection. This frees your customers to think, and to like, respect, and trust you. You become the leader they are looking for. A level of trust begins more easily when you are listening. The prospect relaxes and doesn’t feel like he/she is being sold, and begins to share.

Listening not only allows you to receive valuable information but is crucial to establishing a close and personal friendship. Think how valuable you will become with your prospects if you are the only person in their lives who listens! Listening is the art of getting meaning from any situation. “Really listening” builds self-esteem in the speaker, customer, or prospect. It builds trust. It makes the prospect feel heard, understood, liked, respected, appreciated, and assisted.

It also retrieves and processes valuable information and this information truly can be used as power. If you don’t listen well you miss-selling and closing opportunities, relationship-building opportunities, and specific buying signals.

Listening is what I call the better half of conversation. When we use the term “conversation”, speaking is usually what comes to mind first. However, speaking is only part of a conversation and usually not the biggest part. In the end, what makes the difference is what is heard, accepted, and internalized, not just what is spoken.

I have learned a whole new awareness, distinction, and insight, and I have learned the process of becoming a master listener. This is a process of creatively and actively absorbing what people say. Learning to manage your listening, and really hearing what people are telling you allows you to unleash your own speaking abilities. When you treat listening with the same care and concern you put into speaking, then your conversations will have the influence and effect you desire.

Listening is truly an internal process and this skill is rarely taught. It is an art that takes its own attention to detail. You have to pay particular attention to what is being said, not what you think you hear. Listening is often overlooked in leadership training, even though it may be the most important leadership skill. Mastering the art of listening will make a big difference in your life.

As an exercise, I challenge you to spend one whole day in this next week focusing on what you hear and what new information you’ve learned that you may have taken for granted. Teach yourself to pause after someone finishes speaking a sentence and wait two or three seconds before responding. This may challenge you. Average people jump in right away at the back end of someone else’s sentence because they feel they have to be heard. They end up missing half of the spoken sentence because they are consumed with thinking about what to say instead of listening.

Start to catch yourself interrupting people or your prospects. Be humble enough to apologize and to let the person finish. You’ll know you are improving when you start to catch yourself and you start making improvements.

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