Skills to listen effectively to sales executives. For any Sales Executive speaking to a potential buyer, listening carefully is a non-negotiable obligation.
If they don’t do this, they can lose the opportunity to get essential responses from consumers, for example, comments, questions, objections, or wishes related to the products offered.
Even though the buyer’s response is often closely related to their decision to buy the product, for example, questions about discounts or payment terms.
1. Effective listening
skills Effective listening skills must be trained or developed continuously because listening to other people talk is not the least of the distractions.
The first nuisance is the difference in the speed at which people think and listen. Human Communication experts state that the average speed of people speaking is around 150 to 175 words every minute, while the speed of thinking is around 400 to 500 words every minute.
2. Speed of speaking and thinking
If the speaker cannot keep the listener’s attention continuously, the difference in the speed of speaking and thinking can tempt the listener to daydream or think about other things.
Whereas in reality, most people are lazy to listen to other people talk so the less interesting a conversation is the more likely the listener is not listening fully. Effective listening to potential buyers can be trained through the:
- Listening attentively to them.
- Build listening patience.
- Listen to important comments or notes they teach.
- Eliminate audible distractions.
- Listen attentively.
If you want to understand what potential buyers are saying or wanting, Sales Executives must listen to them carefully. For that, they must practice being a good listener.
They are expected to demonstrate in a manner that they are listening attentively. They have to train themselves that every time someone else speaks to them, they look that person in the face and give the expression that they are listening to every word that is being said.
They must get used to not distracting the concentration of potential buyers who are talking, for example not moving their feet, tapping their fingers on the table, or playing with something that is held in their hands.
3. Build listening and patience.
One taboo of Sales Executives is to react negatively to what the buyer says. However disapproving of consumer comments about a product or company, Sales Executives should never express displeasure, anger, or arrange rebuttals.
Patient listening can help solve many problems compared to interrupting many conversations. Sales Executives must have an open attitude and be willing to accept constructive criticism or suggestions from prospective buyers.
Patience like this doesn’t just grow. Sales Executives must train themselves to master this skill continuously.
Listen to what matters. In addition to listening attentively, Sales Executives must be able to differentiate between the important and the mundane things a potential buyer brings up during a conversation.
Often they give a tone of pressure for the things they want, for example by saying “For me, the important thing in choosing the machine that I will buy is that it is easy to find spare parts…”. Sales Executives who are trained will record these words as one of the motivations for purchasing a machine by the consumer concerned.
These words are another example of phrasing the important things a potential buyer makes. Such as “My main objection to this product is…” or “I would consider this manufacturer’s equipment offering, as long as…”.
In the last example, less experienced Sales Executives may be satisfied that the customer has promised to consider the product offering.
Even though the words spoken by potential buyers still contain the word “origin” which contains important things, they must listen carefully and write them down.
If the company cannot meet the consumer’s expectations after the word “origin”, there is a possibility that they will not buy.
4. Eliminate distractions.
Sales Executives should be able to rule out distractions that occur during conversations with consumers, for example, the ringing of the telephone, the movement of people passing beside the meeting table, the noise of potential buyers’ children at home, and so on.
If they cannot overcome the disturbance, their attention will be divided into two, namely listening to the prospect’s words and the disturbance that arises. As a result, they are unable to listen to buyers effectively.
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When these distractions start to get annoying, Sales Executives should find ways to overcome them, for example by politely asking the potential buyer who is being visited to move to another meeting place.
If this cannot be resolved, it means that Sales Executives have to work extra hard to be able to ignore these disturbances.
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