Listening techniques

Grant Leboff: Tony, I think one of the clichés about selling is ‘listening is the most important part’. Actually, I think it’s probably true. The challenge is, I think most people, it’s like driving, everybody thinks they’re a good driver, everybody thinks they’re a good listener. How do you know if you are and how do you improve yourself if, perhaps, you’re not?

Tony Morris:  I think that’s probably one of my weakest points, actually my listening. I was always told I was an amazing questioner as a kid but halfway through the answer I’d walk off and do something else. I think salespeople, by nature, like the sound of their own voice. Some of them are quite knowledgeable and hopefully they’re passionate, so they like to talk a lot more than the prospect.

I think the truth is to understand, as a sales professional, you must listen. That is the old cliché, you’ve got two ears, one mouth, use them the right way round. Then there’s the Pareto Law, the 80-20 and you should be getting the prospect speaking 80%. I think to test if you are a good listener, really should come from your manager. Maybe when you come out of a meeting, a manager should ask you quite a few questions of what information you obtained? Or, they should watch you in a sales meeting and almost test on what things you picked up. I think that’s the only way to tell if you actually are taking information in.

I think, to me, a good listener, to develop your listening skills is using tag on questions. If I say, for example, I love Chinese Food, someone could ask me, “Where’s the best Chinese you’ve ever eaten?” You can only ask that tag on question if you’ve listened. If you can develop that questioning technique, your listening will naturally improve anyway.

Grant Leboff: That’s interesting. If you’ve got a sales manager, or whatever, that’s great. What about for business owners? Who classically are selling over time, who perhaps don’t have the advantage of having someone come in with them on a meeting, and watch what they’re doing. How would they start to assess their own sense of where they are in terms of how good they are listening?

Tony Morris:  I remember when I first set my company up, as I said, listening was definitely a weakness of mine. I was looking to improve. What I did is, when I went into a prospective meeting, I said to the prospect, “Are you okay if I record this meeting?” I always got permission first, or I would have a pen, actually, that had a USB on it, that would record up to 3 hours. I would record the meeting, but I would also take my notes. After the meeting when I reviewed it, I normally played back the meeting, and actually compared it to the notes I took to see what did I miss.

To begin with, it was quite a lot. After time as I developed my listening skills by using tag on, and just actually concentrating that a bit more, there was a lot that I took on-board, and didn’t fall through the net. I think, as a business owner, as individual without a manager, it’s about testing yourself. I will do that by either videoing, or recording; auditory recording.

Grant Leboff: That’s very interesting. I love the idea of the tag on questions, as well, and listening back to yourself. It takes a bit more time by doing that. Are there any other hints and tips you’d give someone for just refining and perfecting those listening skills?

Tony Morris: I think note taking is key. As a salesperson when I started out, I used to write down everything. It’s a bit like separating the weak from the chaff. You’re in a 2 hour meeting. The truth is there’s probably 15 minutes of nuggets there that you need to retain. It’s being disciplined, and writing, and recording the information that’s key to what you’re there about. I think that’s an art, and a skill in itself, but it’s being able to really funnel down, and just take notes of what’s key, that’s going to help you in your next step, whether it’s a proposal, or a presentation you’re planning. That comes with practice, and doing more meetings, and more interactions.

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