Listen Well and "FOLLOW THE BUYER”

Every Sales Trainer talks about the need to develop listening skills. Many tips are given to accomplish this – focus on the speaker’s lips, repeat what’s being heard, take notes while conversing, etc.

I’ve found that improving listening skills goes hand-in-hand with asking the right questions. We talked about the importance of using “Protocols” – a prepared set of questions. Protocols enable us to focus on what the Buyer is saying. Asking the right question liberates us to listen better.

Many factors go into conversing and truly comprehending what is being said – physical location, nature of the discourse, relationship with the people involved, whether people are happy, sad, or angry, etc. We need to be able to “mental multi-task.” Every time a Buyer says something, we have to make a split-second decision. Do we continue asking the questions we wanted to ask or do we “follow the Buyer,” and ask questions relevant to where the Buyer is taking the discussion? This has to happen at the speed of sound and needs to be smooth and flawless, which can only be done with practice, preferably through video-tape role-play.

When we use Protocols, we “ask and then listen.” When we follow the Buyer, we “listen and then ask.”