Bert Swope
They can give you valuable tips on what kind of questions to ask and what answers to look out for. I find that very few are willing to provide them with useful information for poor listeners. If you speak too much, you look less intelligent than you are, and you can minimize the likelihood of that happening if you listen more than you speak.
When most sales professionals hear data like my own talk-to-listening relationship, they resort to asking too many questions because it feels questionable and annoying. If you focus on listening and waiting for an opportunity to speak, you will ask good questions to keep the conversation going. You will learn more about the viewpoint of your interlocutors by asking big questions, and you will find that the conversation is more interesting if you end up discussing issues that go beyond the original talking points.
By learning to speak less and listen more, you can transform your part of the conversation into something more to do with learning than preaching. Exercise this strategy of listening for about a month by speaking less in meetings, offering new ideas to your customers, or making low-key comments to a group of other employees. Practice talking about your ideas without spouting phrases like “I think this opinion is not a good idea” or phrases that sound as if you doubt your opinion and leave the door open for others to do the same.
“Michael Buccellato,” I think that people tend to use different language and other technical terms, especially when working with SaaS. This makes it more important to ask clarifying questions to ensure you understand what the customer is saying. It’s more of a strategic type of meeting where you sit next to the customer and put yourself in a position to ask smart questions and focus on listening to what they say.
One of the most valuable lessons I have learned as a journalist is to ask the right questions to be interesting. One of Carnegie’s valuable recommendations is that if you can become a great listener and encourage others to speak for themselves, you will get their respect and admiration. So my first question is what questions I ask, and then I listen.
Creativity research suggests that people with the most ideas are the most likely to have the best ideas. By learning to talk less and more listen, you give yourself the space to develop your ideas. Thinking about what to share and what to keep yourself at bay is more difficult than it looks because you are used to throwing out ideas as soon as they come to mind.
The authors and self-described introverts Morra and Aaron Mele suggest three steps and strategies that make you feel less stressed and more confident in meetings for introverts and entrepreneurs. Practice the 80 / 20 rule: Listen to 80% of the talk, ask 20% good questions and transform your workplace into a more transparent and productive one.
People’s rookie mistake in their first days in a company is to urge them to step on stage and speak to others and say what they intend to say in general clichés rather than actual insights. Try to emphasize listening through speaking. Office management and support staff are the backbones of any organization. One of the youngest employees in the office is someone who has never let anyone speak in a meeting. There are unique and future-oriented people in the role of customer success management.
If you want to improve the quality of your sales conversations and increase your profit rate, the ratio of conversation to listening is an important thing to consider. Listening is one of the most powerful tools in your communication arsenal because it’s about understanding the message and telling each other about it. Stephen Covey’s book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is an excellent read for tips on improving listening skills and the fact that you can build relationships in general.
The mere presence of a telephone conversation can make people feel less connected and affect their communication ability. For people like Jared and Francoise, it takes much more time and effort to recover from communication breakdowns than to avoid them altogether. The ability to take risks and speak out can be the difference between preventing a mistake and learning from a mistake.
Research shows that people who don’t know each other ask these kinds of questions, feel more connected, and spend time doing tasks together. In fact, studies show that people who express an interest in their interlocutors “points of view and pursue issues that stimulate debate are more popular and more likely to engage in future interactions.
Our brains think a lot about what people are talking about, so beware of the tendency to take a mental detour when you listen. Most people tend to treat conversations as a competitive sport in which the person who said the most makes the smartest arguments, convinces others, speaks the longest, and speaks the loudest speaks. This means that many conversations are about triangulation – it’s not just about repeating what someone has done before. It’s about asking the same question in a few different ways to give someone an advantage in the way we talk and making sure it’s the same over and over again.
