How Important is Good Listening?

There’s a common belief that selling is 80% listening and 20% talking. I can almost hear you say, "Well, if that's true, if we just call our clients and shut up for 80% of the time, does that mean they will buy from us?" If only …

Sadly, very few salespeople are good listeners. They think they are listening but what they're actually doing is thinking about what they're going to say next. We all have two ears and one mouth and you may have already heard that's the ratio to keep in mind when you're using them.

The salesperson who can ask the right questions and listen carefully to the answers knows that customers give numerous buying signals. (We’ll talk about this in more depth in a future issue of Outside Line). This salesperson will gain tremendous power through the information they glean, which can then be used to present their sale in the most professional manner. They can establish the needs of individual customers and present them with the best solution.

When you're recruiting new telesales staff, don't just ask them if they are good listeners. Put them to the test to find out how much they can learn from listening.

Selling in Stages

Stage 5 - Establishing Customer Needs

Here is stage 5 of the selling process, which focuses on the importance of finding out what it is that your customers actually need.

• Never start selling until you have established your customer's needs! If you don’t know what products or services are suitable for a customer, how can you offer them a suitable solution? You will only know what products or services are suitable by establishing their needs.
• Always treat people as individuals, as no two buyers are the same and they have different ideas of what their needs are.
• Be genuine in your approach. Ask your customers what they need, how that need is currently being satisfied, how happy they are with their supplier and why. Be genuinely interested in the answers and use the information to assess which of your products or services is right for each customer.
• Never attempt to close a sale until you are sure you have enough information. This is where double glazing companies get poor reputations. By asking the right questions which lead towards your unique selling points, you can present a solution to a customer’s problem which they didn't even know existed.

Winning Telesales Techniques

To help you get more from telesales, we're running a course on Winning Telesales Techniques.

This one-day course will be ideal for you if you need to use the phone regularly, want to develop your existing skills and need to learn some new techniques. You should also attend if you work in telesales and would like to improve your performance.

By the end of the day, you'll be able to make your calls ten times more effective, by using our recommended sales strategies and you'll know how to identify customer needs through perceptive questioning techniques. You'll also learn how to close a sale through basic negotiating techniques.

This will be a very interactive course, allowing you to practice making outbound calls, through different exercises, to help you identify your own personal strengths and weaknesses and develop your sales technique. The experienced trainer will then analyse your calls and give you individual feedback.

We will also cover communication skills, to help you improve rapport by adapting your behaviour and analyse non-verbal communication including voice, projection and pace. We will look at using questions to secure visible results and creating impact with opening statements.

Elements of the sales process will be covered, including the importance of planning and research, maintaining focus and control when making outbound calls, recognising buying signals and overcoming objections. It's going to be a busy day! 

The cost of this one-day course is £195 + VAT per delegate. It will be held on 7 September, in Marlow in Buckinghamshire.