Talk less. Listen more. Sell smarter.
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This article was written by Ari Galper, an Entrepreneurs’ Organization member in Sydney. Galper is a best-selling author and leading authority on trust-based selling. He shares why the art of listening is a rare skill in today’s AI-centric world, and how you can build trust by improving your ability to truly hear your customers.
At the Fortuna One Summit in late September, I heard Steven Bartlett, host of The Diary Of A CEO podcast, say something that stopped me in my tracks. Bartlett said his goal in business isn’t to outwork everyone, but instead to “out-listen” everyone.
That single statement reveals that Bartlett has figured out what most business owners and their sales teams miss: Out-listening is rare. Because it’s rare, it builds trust faster than almost anything else.
Bartlett shared that out-listening is one of the core pillars behind his success.
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The art of out-listening
I’ve spent more than two decades teaching the importance of truly listening to your customer inside sales conversations. It still surprises me how few people do it.
Most salespeople walk into a sales conversation already thinking about what you’re going to say next. You have several prepared answers in mind. So, you need only listen for a few buzzwords to determine which prepared answer best fits this particular prospect’s challenges.
Does that sound familiar? Your prospect starts describing their situation, explaining specific pain points, but before they’ve even finished, the solution has already formed in your head, and you can’t wait to share it. The problem, in fact, is that you don’t wait to share it.