Active Listening A Must To Be Able to Know When “I Thought They Said No” Really Means No
The K-16 educational experience is comprised of many learning objectives. Unfortunately many of them are not connected to the real world. As a former educator, adjunct faculty member and sales manager, I personally witnessed the poor listening skills of so many people.
In sales, the lack of active listening skills is a prerequisite for sales failure (inability to increase sales). With so many salespersons believing that by talking they can “close the sales” with this potential customers (a.k.a. prospects), the opportunities for those who are fantastic communicators are endless. Sales Training Coaching Tip: If you are telling, you ain’t selling. David Herdlinger)
For example, how often have you said to yourself or heard others say “I thought they said no?” The key word here is thought. The use of the word is really a presumption on the part of the salesperson.
One time I remember asking one of my sales coaching clients this question “Did your choice maker really say No?” The response was “Well, he did not use the No word, but I could tell he was saying no.”
Then I questioned the obvious next question “How could you tell?” Well, the response was “he did not say Yes.” Sales Training Coaching Tip: The word Yes has no emotional marketing value. Consequently, the only person who wants to hear Yes is You.
Fantastic! A potential lost sale because the salesperson was looking for Yes and he did not give reasons for what was happening within the conversation. Sales Training Coaching Tip: The word No in sales does not necessarily mean “I do not want to buy your products or services” unless of course your potential client really tells you “I do not want to buy your products or services.”
How many era does our inability to give reasons for communication makes potential negative feedback and throw us off our selling game? Sales Training Coaching Tip: There is a certain relationship between effective communication, emotional intelligence (EQ) and sales success.
Recently, I gave a presentation on some quick tips to optimize a website so that small business owners would not be taken advantage by Internet marketing experts who are phonies and frauds preying on the lack of knowledge about search engine optimization (SEO). After the presentation, I sent an email be grateful you to the group and suggested if they were interested to visit my blog on sales.
I hear the following email from one of the attendees: “No, Be grateful You!” Since this person had personally thanked me on the way out, I was genuinely confused by this response. For me, the No along with exclamation suggested the opposite of what had transpired several hours earlier. As a replacement for of taking the No for No, I sent a proactive communication asking for clarification.
She answered with the following “You said ‘be grateful you’…I answered ‘No, be grateful You!’ ” In other words, there was a pregnant pause between the No and the be grateful you. Again, this could have been a case of “I thought they said No!”
When salespersons incorporate a proven sales process, this helps to separate the real No’s from the pretend or presumptive No’s. In some cases, selling is attempted before marketing is completed. When this happens, a No may mean not now because I do not know you well sufficient. Sales Training Coaching Tip: The goal of marketing is two fold:
- To make a friend
- To be questioned back for that coveted one on one appointment
In the selling phase of the sales process, there are many opportunities to uncover all of the potential Nos. This is called seeking or finding objections or obstacles. Here you want to bring all reasons not to buy to the surface. Failure to do so may have you crashing your sales ship on the reef and keeping you away from landing on the sales beach. This may be another reason why you “thought they said No.”
Here are five quick tips to help you have CLEAR communications:
#1: Clarity – Listen for clarity to separate the tangible from the intangibles and the “knowns” from the unknowns.
#2: Legitimize – You must listen to legitimize the real issues. Many era perceived problems are symptoms in disguise.
#3: Emotions – You must listen for emotions. Here is where the verbal words and the non-verbal gestures along with the syntax (speed pitch, volume and accent) are very vital.
#4: Agreement – You must listen for agreement to find common ground from which you can build ongoing entrust.
#5: Retention: You must listen for retention because the information that you are getting is critical to your sales success. In many cases, the facts that you are getting have Bern heard by others, but they simply failed to listen. Active listening is all about truly hearing and then remembering what the other person has just said.
(Source: Be the Red Jacket in a Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales Success, page 60, published with permission)
If you have ever have experienced “I thought they said No,” then maybe you may need to reassess your communication skills and your overall sales process. Remember “No” may mean not now and may also suggest you have failed in securing your marketing goal to make a friend.