It’s a busy old world, and we are bombarded with so much information coming from many channels of communication. Much of this is one-way and we are just passive recipients. We are ‘talked at’ and it’s hit and miss whether we actually listen to and act on what we see and hear.
And that’s a very big problem, especially when you are actually speaking with someone.
I’m sure you’ve all met someone who can’t wait to talk about themselves and what they do. When you talk, they seem to tune out and if you say you’ve done something, they’ve done something similar or usually better. This maybe because they want to appear superior, or it could be because they haven’t learned how to listen.
With these people, it’s difficult to get a word in and after a while you tune out and just let them get on with it. You take little if any notice of what they are saying, and you take your leave as soon as you can. These are very irritating and boring people!
In selling there is no greater asset than listening
Listening is the way you learn what challenges the buyer faces, and it’s how you uncover their needs and motivations to buy. But many salespeople still believe that telling their story to as many people as possible is what it takes to succeed. Where you directly interact with people in a sales situation, listening should be your number one priority.
Asking questions is the precursor to listening
The best way to start a conversation is by asking a question. This will deliver a response that you listen to and act on. You can then either ask a qualifying question, or tell the part of your story that’s relevant to that point.
Notice I said “relevant to that point” because that’s key. This isn’t an invitation to start a monologue, this is an opportunity to find a point of mutual interest and develop the conversation further. And the best way to do this is … you guessed it … to ask another question! Then you listen to and respond to the answer.
You maybe reading this and thinking “this is so obvious” and that’s the whole point - it is! And that’s why I’m always surprised, and a little irritated when I meet someone who obviously either doesn’t want to, or hasn’t learned how to listen.
Listening is an essential skill in any walk of life from personal relationships to the way we work with colleagues and business contacts.
Listening is a skill that can be learned, but you must work at it. Think about how you operate. Are you really a good listener? Be honest and ask others how they rate you as a listener.
You maybe surprised at the answer - that’s of course assuming you’ll listen to it!
There is an urban myth that great salespeople are good talkers but in reality, the opposite is true. Great salespeople are in fact wonderful listeners.
They ask excellent, incisive questions that uncover the information that helps them to solve problems and win business. The key skill needed here is called Fact Finding and Qualification (FFQ).
Understanding where you are in any sales cycle is critical to your success. It’s an ongoing process to ensure you are spending your sales-time wisely; with someone who is interested in what you sell, and has the ability to make a decision to buy. This is why FFQ is so important.
At the heart of FFQ is the ability to ask the right questions and the best way to do this is in a conversation. And remember, a conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. This is where many salespeople fail, because they try to talk a prospective client into buying.
Grilling someone to demand information on budget, timescale and decision making process on an initial call is a very bad idea. One of the keys to success is to establish rapport and build trust. And you only really do that by sharing information and delivering on your promises.
The questions you ask will depend on what you are selling, but as a minimum you must understand the following;
- The problem they are trying to solve (this is what drives a decision to buy)
- What is driving the urgency (this is the motivation to take action)
- How they make a decision (the process, people and criteria they use to decide)
- When they will make a decision (this is related to urgency)
- What you need to do to win (unless you now this you have no plan ... and that's very bad!)
When you think about it, FFQ is something you should do all the time. It makes sense really because the more you know about the people you do business with, the better you can serve them. And that's ultimately what drives strong and sustainable sales growth in any business.
Occam's Razor is a principle for understanding the world that was developed over 600 years ago by an English logician and Franciscan friar, William of Ockham.
He wrote "Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem"
... and if your Latin is as patchy as mine, this translates as "Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily."
The term razor describes the act of shaving away unnecessary assumptions to get to the simplest explanation. Occam's Razor is often used to illustrate simplicity in many areas such as Science and Philosophy, but it also applies to business for example;
"The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct."
We are bombarded with information from so many different sources today that it's hard to focus. The ability to develop messages that are clear, concise and compelling is more important today than ever before. William of Ockham was clearly onto something!
The ability to communicate a message or idea to an audience is a core skill. Whether you are a salesperson, manager, teacher or student, if you know how to present well you will feel more confident, get better results and actually enjoy doing it!
Unfortunately many people get this so wrong and this is mainly due to lack of confidence, preparation and know how. It's simple to make a rapid and dramatic improvement by remembering a few golden rules;
1. Understand why your are presenting. Is it to educate, inform, entertain or persuade?
2. Know who your audience is and what you (and they) want to achieve.
3. What's your Big Idea? What's the key thing you want them to remember?
4. Develop your story ... before you open Powerpoint or Keynote!
This simple guide will give you the rules you should obey every time you put a presentation together.
Why is everything so complicated and hard to understand? How do we make sense of the world around us with information everywhere? Why can’t things be simpler?
Great question, but some people believe that simple means banal and anything that is simple must of less value or importance or substance because, well, it’s simple!
When you see a really simple idea you wonder why you did think of it and that’s the whole point - you didn’t because you may have been looking for a more complicated answer!
Leonardo Da Vinci said "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." This is one of my favourite quotes, because it clearly says that being simple isn't banal, it's difficult to achieve yet elegant.
Simplicity in design enables a user to easily and quickly understand how to use a product. Is your software easy to use? Is it intuitive or does it require a steep learning curve? Do you know how to use a supermarket? What about when you arrive at an Airport, how do you know where to go - even if you haven’t been there before?
Our ability to use any product or service involves a combination of expert knowledge, previous experience, a degree of intelligence, common sense, a basic level of literacy or an ability to understand signs and symbols.
But design is not just about making products - it is about creating a user experience for anything. In their book Design Matters: How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company, Emery and Brunner describe how design IS more than form and function and how great design across everything you do, will make people love your company - it’s definitely worth a read.
Stephen Hawking tried to simplify the origins of the Universe in his book ‘A Brief History of Time’ and to a degree he succeeded - well, a lot of people bought the book, but maybe they were like me and still found it hard to get past the first few chapters. This was because once he explained the basic ideas he delved into the detail that required some degree of expert knowledge.
The same holds true in business, because many organisations concentrate on describing the detail of what they do before they set the scene and describe their ‘Big Picture’. Their audience find it hard to understand what they are saying and they drift off to look at something else.
Why not take a fresh look at your story and how you communicate it? Is it really simple and easy to understand? Are your messages Clear, Concise and Compelling?
Remember, simple is NOT bad, it’s good and it can give you competitive advantage in a world where many messages are competing for attention.
