“Try not to just listen to what people are saying. Try to understand what’s being said.” – Jack Wilson in today’s Tip 1426
Do you listen to what people say, or do you listen to what’s being said?
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Happy Friday everyone. Here’s Jack Wilson with today’s tip:
Jack Wilson: What’s going on Daily Sales Tips Community. Jack Wilson back with another tip. Do you listen to what people say, or do you listen to what’s being said? I know it might sound like a little bit of a play on words, but sometimes what our buyers and what the people we’re in conversation with say can differ from some of the subtle undertones of what’s actually being said. There’s an important distinction when it comes to understanding how people listen. And to give you sort of the poor man’s brain science on it. When you listen to something or when you hear a sound, it travels through the parietal lobe first before going to the frontal lobe. What that means to all of us is basically we make assumptions based on what we already know before we ever actually evaluate the new information that’s entering our brains.
So if you listen to one of my tips from earlier this year about making umptions and not being an ass, you’ll understand that assuming things based on information you already have can be detrimental, not just in your deal if you’re in sales, but in your conversations in general and in your relationships. This is one of the reasons why Gong, Chorus, and other listening tools provide you with a patient score. It’s not just because you want your buyer to understand that you’re giving them space in the conversation. You don’t want to cut them off and you want to give them room to react. But it’s also for you. It’s to make sure that you’re not just taking in information and reacting instinctively, that you’re actually giving your brain time to process. And look, contrary to belief, it doesn’t take you minutes to process information. It just takes you a couple of extra seconds for that signal to cross the synapse.
So a couple of things you can do to help you listen more deeply, not just actively, is take more pause when you’re listening to someone. Perhaps count to three before you respond. I know it seems a little crazy, but I actually do this in my own head because I tend to talk quick and want to jump in and respond. So I say one, two, three before I respond, because now my brain has had a chance to catch up.
The other thing is, I find it crazy that not a lot of reps listen to their own calls. You would think that’s the obvious reason we have call recording tools, but the percentage of reps that actually go back and listen to their own calls is less than 30%. So if only a third of us are listening to our conversations back again, think about all of the assumptions we’re making. Think about all of the information we’re failing to process. Think about all the opportunity potentially lost and the relationships you could have forged deeper.
So moving forward, as we enter a new year, try not to just listen to what people are saying. Try to understand what’s being said.
Scott Ingram: Hopefully, you’ve already done this, but for links to connect with Jack, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1426. Once you’ve been over there, be sure to come right back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!