Justsell.com offers up a reminder about a critical sales skill that is often overlooked – attentiveness.  This skill is less frequent in salespeople who lack empathetic abilities or are overly task-oriented.  I have seen this first-hand on a number of occasions.

What happens is the salesperson tends to something else during a discussion.  Typically, the actions seems fairly innocuous – a cell phone alarm, looking through some notes, checking a text message, even adjusting the height of an office chair.  All of these tasks seem inconspicuous, but they are an immediate tell that you are not fully attentive to the speaker.  The better approach is to ignore the task if possible or, at a minimum, wait until it is your turn to speak and pardon yourself for attending to the task.

If I am starting to sound like Miss Manners, let me reference the Justsell.com article:

Anything less than your full attention sends a message of arrogance – a message of condescension – a message of which no one (including ourselves) enjoys being on the receiving end (and certainly not when we’re the prospect or customer).

Again, most salespeople are not consciously attempting to appear arrogant, but their actions belie their intent.

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