{"id":1898,"date":"2020-10-23T15:27:20","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T15:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/?p=1898"},"modified":"2020-10-23T15:27:20","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T15:27:20","slug":"just-listen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/uncategorized\/just-listen\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Listen"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>While interviewing prospective media sales reps and visiting with seasoned sales reps, every once in a while I meet people who proudly proclaim their strength to be,<em> &#8220;I&#8217;ve got the gift of gab.&#8221;\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0They say this as it\u2019s a strength instead of a potential weakness.<\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4>In sales, the \u201cgift of gab\u201d can oftentimes be more aptly described as \u201cthe curse of chatter\u201d, or more to the point as someone that \u201cdoesn\u2019t know when to shut up&#8221;!<\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4>Successful sales professionals know that sales is really more about listening than it is about talking.<\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4>Those with the curse more often engage in product-feature speak than they do in providing customer-focused solutions or opportunities.<\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4>Customers don&#8217;t care how much you know until they know how much you care&#8230;.and caring is demonstrated by listening.<\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4>Listening is by far the most important skill a sales professional can learn and practice.\u00a0\u00a0The salespeople who annoy and alienate prospects the most are those who claim to be good listeners but follow every customer objection with a &#8220;<em>yah, but&#8230;..<\/em>&#8220;<\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4>There is no room for the word &#8220;but&#8221; in a good listener&#8217;s vocabulary.\u00a0To be a professional listener you need to:<\/h4>\n<h4>1.) Be Prepared. Earn the right to ask questions by learning something about the prospect&#8217;s business before you make a call.<\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4>2.) Ask open-ended questions that encourage the prospect to express their views and feelings.<\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4>3.) Demonstrate you are listening by taking notes. (Always ask permission to take notes, i.e. <em>&#8220;Your input is important to me; do you mind if I take a few notes?&#8221;<\/em>)<\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4>4.) Paraphrase and summarize what you hear.\u00a0\u00a0Don&#8217;t start a debate.<\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4>5.) Use the language and needs you hear the customer express when you make your presentation.<\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4>6.) Make certain that every benefit you present relates to a need you heard the prospect express.<\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4>There is a lot more money to be made being <em>interested<\/em> than there is in being <em>interesting<\/em>.<\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4>So, instead of proving that you have the \u201cgift of gab\u201d, shut up and\u2026 Just Listen!<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While interviewing prospective media sales reps and visiting with seasoned sales reps, every once in a while I meet people who proudly proclaim their strength to be, &#8220;I&#8217;ve got the gift of gab.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0They say this as it\u2019s a strength instead of a potential weakness. In sales, the \u201cgift of gab\u201d can oftentimes be more aptly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[384,529,161],"class_list":["post-1898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-customer","tag-listen","tag-prospects"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Just Listen - ENS on Sales<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ensmediausa.com\/ens-on-sales\/uncategorized\/just-listen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Just Listen - ENS on Sales\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While interviewing prospective media sales reps and visiting with seasoned sales reps, every once in a while I meet people who proudly proclaim their strength to be, &#8220;I&#8217;ve got the gift of gab.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0They say this as it\u2019s a strength instead of a potential weakness. 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