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Knowing how to listen allows us to determine what the client wants and needs.
Most of us would be willing to admit that talking is better than listening. Speaking is a sign of authority and activity, while listening seems to be a passive endeavor. The fact is that listening has been shown to be active, it is mental work.
The listening process is made up of simple techniques: planning ahead, taking notes, asking the right questions at the right time, and being attentive to what we hear, verifying the data using feedback.
To make this process even more challenging, there are several obstacles that prevent efficient listening. Environmental interference may be beyond our control. However, we can control the distractions that arise from ourselves. One of these distractions is divided attention. By trying to do too many things at once, we put ourselves and the client in an unfair position.
There is another obstacle that may have its origin in ourselves; when we talk to ourselves we compromise our ability to listen to the customer. Obviously we must plan ahead, but we must avoid doing so while important information is reaching us.
One of the worst obstacles when trying to listen is the fear of failure. By trying to get a vague idea of the customer's concerns or only half listening to them, we are looking for precisely the failure we want to avoid.
The active listening process begins before we meet the customer. Before making a visit we must prepare the information. It is necessary to anticipate questions and objections that we can expect from the customer and have possible answers ready for those objections.
When greeting the client, we must try to form an idea of their situation by asking them open questions of a general nature. The answers will give us a general context which we can drill down later for details.
While listening to the client, it is advisable to maintain visual control and offer verbal and non-verbal confirmation that we are listening. Even if the customer talks incessantly, it is important to keep listening. We may be the beneficiaries of "inadvertent" words that can provide an angle for a successful sale. We can always redirect a conversation that deviates from the point, by means of a guiding question.
Sometimes it is convenient to take notes, although these should be limited to facts and figures. Relying too much on notes can interfere with our ability to listen effectively and can be an unnecessary distraction for both parties.
It is common for our clients to verbally express what we think they want and not what they really want. By listening and carefully observing the customer we can help to recognize an unspoken message and to solve the problem.
There are several forms of physical interference that can distract us and prevent us from listening effectively to our customers. Noise, confusion, and fatigue can severely limit our concentration. However, the mental barriers are more serious.
5 obstacles that prevent us from listening carefully and that arise from ourselves
1. Indifference: Many times we think that what the client says is not important and we stop listening while our minds wander. This brings two obvious disadvantages: first, the client can say something very important while we are distracted and, second, and even more important, we are becoming lazy eavesdroppers and this habit can be difficult to eradicate later. Indifference in listening is without excuse; it means we downplay it, and if so, we are in the wrong place.
2. Impatience: It can be more understandable, although it is still an equally serious problem. We get impatient with a slow customer, or one who won't stop talking, and our ideas start to get ahead of the conversation. Therefore, we must observe strict discipline and focus on what the client says, even if he or she never finishes saying it.
3. Prejudice: If we allow prejudices to appear such as the way the clients speaks, their attitudes or their company, we have to learn to control them. By thinking of the client, from that perspective, we are interfering with the listening process.
4. The concern: We are all human. There will be times when we are preoccupied with personal or business problems. It is important to remain vigilant and not let this interfere with our purpose. When we enter and walk through the client's door, we must leave all those distractions behind.
5. Misuse of words: This is a double consequence problem. First, the client may have difficulty expressing himself and implying things that he does not intend to say. This can confuse us or lead us to misinterpret the message. Second, we can be guilty of misusing words and misinterpreting what a customer tells us. In the first case, it is important to ask questions if we suspect that the customer is not expressing himself clearly. In the second case, we have to concentrate on improving our own ability to express ourselves and our vocabulary.
How to improve your listening habits
There are multiple successful techniques that we can use to improve our listening habits. They are all simple techniques and they all require self-discipline.
1. Don't interrupt. Nothing overrides communication as well as interruption. By interrupting the client's line of ideas, we interrupt our listening process as well. Constant interruption results in a customer who is unwilling to talk. Or worse, that the client will feel annoyed with us.
2. Learn to listen between the lines. There is usually a discrepancy between what the client says and what he really means. It is possible that the customer is trying to hide a problem in its operations, or that he is not sure what the real problem is. In either case, the only way to determine the true meaning of what the customer is saying is to listen carefully. We listen between the lines when we observe both the client's non-verbal communication and what we see around us.
3. Focus on developing retention capacity. Taking too many notes can become a "crutch" if we rely on it too much. It interferes with our mental ability to retain information. However, when a customer presents us with a whole list of production figures or names, we may be forced to take notes. In this case it is useful. It tells the client that we are serious and that we care.
4. "Don't detune the customer." We have all come across clients who keep talking about topics that we consider unimportant. It is likely that many times we have "detuned" these people by thinking that we are not going to get anything of value from their conversation. There are two downsides to this: first, we are developing lazy listening habits that can interfere with valuable information, and second, we are losing useful information.
5. Do not become hostile or emotional while listening. We can drown out any sound by letting anger dominate while listening to someone with whom we disagree. First, the customer may not know that we disagree - second, if we disagree, there will be plenty of time during our sales presentation to express our point of view. If we disagree about something that has nothing to do with our business, it is better to leave our feelings unspoken.
6. Learn to ignore distractions. It's not worth getting distracted by outside influences during the sales presentation. If we are well disciplined in our listening habits, it will be easier to cancel out distractions. It is useful to remember that although the business environment can be distracting, it is likely that the customers are used to it and that it does not affect them as much as it does for us.
All suggestions are geared toward fostering self-discipline and can be applied to our daily work.
"The most important thing in communication is listening to what is not said"
Peter F. Drucker
DanielaSánchezSilva©
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