According to studies from Psychology Today, Harvard Business Review, and others, the inability to truly hear your customer can differentiate between a closed deal and a missed opportunity in the high-stakes business development world. In a profession dominated by quick talkers and smooth persuaders, it’s easy to overlook the power of silence. But, today, let’s explore why adopting a quieter, more attentive approach is your secret weapon in prospecting, nurturing and closing sales.
The Listening Gap: The Surprising Truth About Human Listening
Research shows the human brain has the capacity to digest as much as 400 words per minute of information. Yet, the average human only speaks 125-150 words per minute. Interestingly, research also shows the average person only listens with about 25% efficiency?🤔 Thus, it would seem we have the ability (brain power) to process more information, yet we do a horrible job of applying that brain power.
For instance, in one study, test takers were asked to sit through a ten-minute oral presentation and, later, recall its content. Half of adults couldn’t do it just moments after the talk, and when asked again two days later, 75 percent of listeners couldn’t remember the subject matter. More recent research, specifically dealing with PowerPoint sales presentations, pegged that two day memory loss number at a whopping 90%!
Meaning, while listening is the core of most of our communications, most of us are horrible at it.
Why Your Sales Training Needs a Listening Revolution
Traditional sales training programs are heavy on eloquence and persuasion—teaching techniques for rapid responses, mastering the art of the close, and navigating objections with verbal agility. But what if I told you that this emphasis on speaking could actually be undermining your selling effectiveness?
That’s right, this oversight could be costing you dearly. Insights from Harvard Business School suggest a different approach: understanding prospects’ needs and responding thoughtfully could boost closing rates by as much as 40%. This stark contrast reveals a potential blind spot in traditional sales strategies. If nearly three-quarters of what we hear escapes us, as earlier stats suggested, isn’t it time to recalibrate our focus? Perhaps the real secret to sales isn’t just about talking a good game, but also about mastering how to listen.
Listening: The Path to Business Development Success
Embracing a quieter sales approach doesn’t mean being less proactive. Rather, it requires a strategic shift towards listening more than speaking, which enhances your credibility and, paradoxically, increases your persuasiveness. Studies in communication and business, like those discussed in general psychological research, suggest that effective listening can significantly improve how sales professionals are perceived by their clients.
According to an analysis of thousands of sales calls done by Gong Labs, top sales performers have a talk-to-listen ratio of 43:57. That’s right – they listen more than they talk.
In this study, top performers sold an average of 120% above their quota, and they did it by focusing less on presenting technical features and specs and more on getting customers to open up about their problems.
In a separate analysis, they found that reps who used slides during their initial sales call produced 17% fewer follow-up calls than those who simply talked to customers during the initial call. Further proves that effective listeners are often able to understand better and meet their clients’ needs, which is crucial for closing sales.
Redefining Sales Training: Creating Great Listeners
In the future, sales training will transcend the confines of talk-based training (conventional scripts and templates) and focus on listening-based training to create strategic engagement and a deep understanding of prospects’ needs and desires. The focus will shift towards empowering business development professionals with the skills to ‘read and respond’—navigating conversations with insight and empathy.
Successful sales training programs will prioritize crafting insightful questions, uncovering prospects’ deeper motivations, and employing decision frameworks to guide discovery conversations. This nuanced approach will teach sellers how to lead prospects towards making not just any buying decision but the perfect one for their needs. In the future, successful sales training will champion the power of connection over conversion, fostering an environment where business development professionals evolve from sellers to trusted advisors.
How to Implement Effective Listening Today
If you prefer to immediately integrate the insights from active listening into your business development strategies, you should focus on:
Active Listening Techniques: Active listening extends beyond merely hearing words; it involves engaging fully with the other person. During any sales conversation, paraphrasing or summarizing what the prospect has said not only confirms you correctly understood but also reassures the prospect that their input is valued. This can help build trust and rapport, crucial elements in any sales relationship.
Asking Open-Ended Questions: Encourage broader conversations by asking open-ended questions. Give your prospects permission and a safe place to discuss their needs and concerns in depth. And once they begin talking, stay quiet. Patience is profit in business development. If you do this, you’ll find this approach not only yields more information but will also cause prospects to express themselves fully, revealing deeper insights into their buying motivations and preferences.
Avoiding Premature Conclusions: It is vital to focus entirely on the prospect’s responses without jumping to conclusions or or thinking about your next point while the prospect is still speaking. This full focus ensures that you are truly responsive to the prospects’ actual words and underlying needs rather than your preconceived notions or selling agenda.
Leveraging CRM Tools: Tools like Nimble (the CRM system I use) reinforce active listening by helping you document and analyze prospect interactions. These CRM systems are great tools to recap key details from prior conversations, such as prospects’ preferences, pain points, and other insights learned from past interactions. This recorded data not only personalizes future interactions but also helps in crafting more tailored follow-up communications and offers, thereby enhancing the prospects’ experience with your sales process.
By embedding these detailed practices into your daily interactions, you can transform the way you connect with and serve your prospects, ultimately leading to more meaningful engagements and successful outcomes.
Your Biggest Hurdle: Overcoming the Habit of Speaking
Overcoming the habitual tendency to speak rather than listen can be challenging, but implementing a few straightforward actions can make a significant difference. Here are some practical, easy-to-adopt strategies that can help you talk less and hear more:
Mindful Listening: Start by practicing mindful listening in everyday conversations, not just in sales settings—wives everywhere, you’re welcome 😊. Focus fully on the other person, avoid distractions, and, most importantly, resist the urge to think about your next comment while the other person is talking. This practice helps develop patience and improves your ability to stay fully engaged in the conversation.
Pause Before Responding: After the other person has finished speaking, take a second or two before you respond. This brief pause allows you to process what has been said and formulate a thoughtful response, demonstrating that you value their input and are not just waiting for your turn to speak.
Use Reflective Phrasing: You’ll sometimes hear this referred to as ‘mirroring,’ where you paraphrase or summarize the other person’s words. This not only shows that you are paying attention but also clarifies that you have understood their message correctly. For example, you could say, “So, what I heard is…” followed by a brief summary of their points. Other times, you might just repeat their last statement as a question and then allow for a pause.
Set Listening Goals: For each conversation, set a simple goal to discover at least one new piece of information about the other person or their needs. This objective turns listening into an active conversation component and keeps you engaged. Think of it as a positive form of gamification. It also teaches you the importance of listening to hear new, important information that talkers often never discover.
By adopting these simple practices, you can start to shift your focus from speaking to listening, enhancing your interactions and laying the behavioral groundwork to transform your speaking style.
A Few Parting Thoughts on Listening’s Role in Selling
It’s easy to blame that missed opportunity, the lost pitch, the contract you that didn’t convert, etc., on outside forces beyond your control. It’s natural to look outward for causes of failure. And in some cases, that is exactly what happened—an outside force beyond your control tilted the opportunity to your competitor.
But I’d argue, if you looked in the mirror and really stared hard, you’d find the reason you lost is due to a missed clue, a buying signal that remained invisible, or just a prospect that didn’t feel heard.
If you struggle to close deals, try talking less so you can hear more. Use these tips to help you better understand exactly what your prospect wants to buy, how they want to buy it and most importantly, how you can position yourself and your company as the ideal solution.
Take the Next Step in Enhancing Your Sales Strategy
If you’re interested in deepening your understanding of silent selling techniques, consider our booking one of our Sales Training or Business Development Workshops. Or maybe Personal Coaching is more your speed. For more free insights and practical tips on improving your sales techniques, subscribe to our newsletter, Painless Prospecting. Or if you’re ready to be heard, give me a call. As one of my old bosses used to say…. It never hurts to talk.
This post was originally published on Painless Prospecting, the weekly sales and marketing blog created by the fine folks at Converse Digital. If you want to learn how to create, engage in, and convert conversations into new clients and customers, give them a call.
