Back to basics: Pay attention!

July 08, 2014 at 12:00 AM
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During a recent sales-training workshop, the topic of asking questions during the discovery stage of the sales process came up.

Every single attendee stated adamantly that he invested time asking his prospect questions.

As the program continued, we discussed the importance of summarizing their new-found knowledge before launching into their sales presentations.

At that point, one participant admitted that he didn't really listen to his prospect's responses and simply went through the motions to give the impression he was listening.

"I don't care about the other guy. I just want to close the deal" were his actual words. What shocked me most was that several other people expressed the same sentiment.

If you find yourself guilty of not being interested in what your prospects have to say, I strongly urge you to reconsider.

If you're going to invest time asking your prospect questions about his business goals and challenges, use that information to tailor your pitch—or you'll have to work much harder to capture that deal.

You'll face more resistance, and more important, you'll sound like all the other self-serving salespeople out there who are merely after a sale.

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