Salespeople are both a blessing and a bane to every industry. You can't live with them, and you can't live without them.

“How are you tonight, Mr. Smith?”

“Fine.”

“Glad to hear it! Mr. Smith, my name is Phil, and I'm calling…” Click.

Salespeople are always people people. People have to love people to do sales because life of a sales person is filled with people. Most sales people are natural people people before they enter sales market. That’s why they go into sales!

Then comes sales training, and natural people person gets canned. No, she don't lose her job. Rather, he is forced to learn and use a canned sales spiel and proven sales techniques. Much has been written about sales. And a lot of it is great, but a different lot of it isn't.

Sales Training Contradiction The other night I stumbled across a blaring contradiction in literature that puts sales people in an impossible bind. Every sales person is taught two fundamental sales techniques that are in stark opposition to each other, and few people seem to be aware of it— not even sales people who use them. Perhaps this contradiction contributes to fact that sales people generally have a poor reputation. This contradiction may help explain why identifying one’s self as a sales person so often engenders a smirk.

The Art of Listening The first of these contradictory techniques involves art of listening. Sales people must listen to customers in order to understand their needs, so that they can shape their sales approach to fit needs of customer. The sale must be tailored to needs of customer.

The customer is supposed to be king. Customer service is all rage. The customer is boss. Thus, listening to customers is good. Everyone could benefit from listening more— and from listening better. People often talk past one another, each person fully committed to sound of his or her own voice. Things gets said, but not much is heard.

"Listen Your Way to Sales Success"

There are many factors and variables that affect our sales on any given day. There is however, one key skill that will increase help you increase your sales immediately.

Listen to your customer!

That's it! That's all it takes to close more sales. Sounds simple doesn't it? Unfortunately, majority of salespeople fail to do this.

In countless sales transactions I watch, I notice that most salespeople don't ask their customers enough questions. Sure, they generally uncover a few basic needs that customer has. They know what they're looking for in a product with regard to features, specifications, color, and price.

What they don't do is probe to uncover additional information about customer. They don't ask them why they want that specific product, or why they're considering our store. They don't learn where customer has been shopping or what they've seen. They don't ask what they like and/or dislike about other stores they've been in to. They don't find out what their hot buttons are or what makes them tick or what will motivate them to buy. They fail to gather enough information!