There are many articles discussing the need for salespeople to be good listeners though it seems like a challenge area for many salespeople. Entrepreneur.com’s Listen And Learn When Making A Sale provides 4 ways to start working on listening skills. I am particularly fond of this one:

2. Dig deeper. Don€™t settle for what the customer says on the surface; have him expand on his key needs and challenges. This helps me uncover hot buttons (very important points that the customer says and that I circle, highlight or star on my notepad), which I can use later to explain how my product or service will address them. Sometimes it might be hard to get the customer talking, so I use a technique called parroting–repeating the last few words the customer says in the form of a question so he€™ll elaborate more on the topic. If the customer says, €œThat€™s been a major problem for us,€ you say, €œProblem?€ Usually this will prompt the customer to go into greater detail.

Exactly right. This surface-level questioning is a serious problem for many under-skilled salespeople. The salesperson knows the proper question to ask, but he or she accepts the prospect’s purposely vague response. The salesperson must dig deeper to get to the clear truth. The author’s suggestion to repeat the prospect’s comment as a question is highly effective (a technique I use often).

The author closes with sage advice for any salesperson:

Don€™t interrupt; resist the urge to jump into the conversation when they bring up something you€™re knowledgeable and passionate about. Just watch–you€™ll begin to learn new, interesting information. It€™s hard to learn anything with your mouth open.

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