How To Improve Your Listening Skills

We can all be better communicators. As sales and business professionals one of the keys to success is our ability to express our thoughts and ideas and to accurately understand those of others. While we seem to excel at getting our point across, many times we struggle to grasp the others persons’.

How To Improve Your Listening Skills

As Stephen Covey said, “Seek first to understand then to be understood.”

If this is the case, you must improve your listening skills—and yes they are skills. They take practice, commitment and work.

Here are four areas to concentrate and improve upon:

Focus

It seems simple, but it’s surprising how many times we simply aren’t focused on the other person when they are talking. Whether we’re thinking of what we’re going to say next or just letting our mind drift—we aren’t present in the moment. Listening is an active activity not a passive one. Focus and really listen to the other party. Hear not just their words but their facial expressions, body language and non-verbal communication. Once you begin to actually, actively focus it will surprise you at how inactive you’ve been in the past.

March Madness Strikes Online Sales Training

As some of you know, I published an online sales training course last year based on my book, The 10 Essential Habits of Sales Superstars: Plugging into The Power of Ten. It has been up at the same site since last summer with little traction.

March Madness Strikes Online Sales Training

Well, I’m happy to announce I’ve become part of the thinkific.com family! My course: The Power of Ten is now available at http://b2-training-development.thinkific.com/. And, during the month of March, I’m offering this entire course for only $17! That’s right, an entire online sales training course for only $17!

You get personalized instruction stepping you through each of the ten habits and are able to progress at your own pace. The plan is to create more courses, so I want to hear from you: what do you need help with? What do you want to learn?

The folks at thinkific.com have made it extremely easy for me to create and publish courses and I am looking forward to adding more in the near future.

Sales Success Requires Cooperation

Seldom am I able to write a blog post which covers all areas of sales and is essentially a blanket statement. Today is one of those days: sales success requires cooperation with and from other departments within your company. In order to be the best you can be and provide your customers with the best possible service you must work and communicate with others—others who will touch the customer and perhaps deliver on the promises you make.

Sales Success Requires Cooperation

Being successful in sales means successfully navigating the treacherous waters of office politics, petty jealousies and any number of other issues facing you and your department on a daily basis. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Know How Things Work: It’s important you understand the workflow process. When you place an order or bring on a new customer, who does what? How many people get involved with your sale? How many things have to go right (and could potentially go wrong) during one sales cycle? You must know this. You have to understand how your actions affect others within your own organization. Others will probably have to fulfill your promises—make sure you know what it takes for them to do so.