Listening Lands the Sale

Everything I write comes from the hard drive up there in my head. The subject happened at some time, in some place and in some company and it got stored on the hard drive.

My clients rarely ever said, “Harris, bring your speech to our conference room and make a presentation.”

So when I write about selling, it’s from the perspective of having sold. It’s not from the perspective of using a sales formula. But, one element of my formula is the act of listening. Orders will not come if your mouth is open and you are not listening.

I’m glad to get all this off my chest. I wanted to make sure that you knew that I write from experience. Isn’t that just like an old fart lecturing in a blog? Oh, and I also walked 10 miles to school in the driving rain and blowing snow in West Palm Beach, FL.

This is a chance for me to climb up on my blog box and stand tall.

My previous blog was about the failure and growing obsolescence of sales presentations. This blog is about winning with sales conversations. You make friends when you have conversations.

The aim of a sales conversation is that both people win. The customer obtains a new supplier and the salesperson gets a new customer. Those early sales conversations form the framework for all future communication.

The media, specifically the cable commentator talking heads, are destroying the art of good conversation. They do it when they ask a question and then interrupt the guest before getting a complete answer.

Sales conversations involve both parties—the customer and the salesperson. Both people get to talk and preferably the customer talks most of the time. These customer-centric conversations are the salesperson’s opportunity to learn the customer in-depth, as more and more is revealed about the customer (the human being), the customer’s company and the customer’s needs.