Nothing happens until somebody sells something. To make sales happen, IMMS.com Key Sales Consultant Randy Schwantz has created a comprehensive series of 43 Producer Success Lessons. Used singly or in combination, these powerful tools can help your producers build their skills - and grow their sales.
Imagine a large road-building crew hacking its way through a dense jungle. The crew foreman is a few steps behind the workers, indicating the trees and bushes to cut. A pathway is beginning to form. The chief of the whole operation climbs a tall tree, looks around, and hollers down, 'Stop! We’re in the wrong jungle!' And the foreman yells back, 'Don’t say that! We’re making progress!'
Have you ever been involved in such a situation? You seem to be making progress, but your basic plan is flawed. It doesn’t matter how cleanly you chopped out the underbrush or how straight the path is — you’re in the wrong jungle. Your work was in vain.
When they realize they’re in the wrong jungle, some folks react by denying the problem. 'Don’t say that!' they protest. 'We’re making progress!' Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how well they complete their task; the outcome or result they wanted won’t be realized. Their efforts are wasted.
LISTENING: A SKILL
One area in which we have a huge opportunity to find ourselves in the wrong jungle is in our listening skills. Few skills have a greater impact on our ability to communicate, yet we seem to spend little or no time working to improve our listening.
In one of my seminars, I ask, 'How many of you believe listening is one, if not the most, important communication skill? [Most of the attendees raise a hand.] So who spent two hours last week working on their listening skills? [No hands go up.] Fine, who spent two hours last month? [Still no hands.] OK, did anybody spend two hours last year working on them? [A couple of hands are raised.] Isn’t it amazing that we spend so much time improving all our other skills but just assume that listening will take care of itself?'
The truth is that listening is a skill like any other. We can vastly improve this skill with training and practice. Let’s focus on some areas that can always be improved and strive for better results.
BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE LISTENING
Ineffective listeners typically have these 10 bad habits:
- Dismissing the subject as uninteresting. When someone talks about something that doesn’t seem interesting, it’s common to react by tuning out the speaker. Cure this habit by listening for information that is interesting. Almost any subject has aspects worth your attention. Labeling an entire subject as boring is a sure way to miss out on worthwhile information.
- Criticizing the speaker’s delivery or mannerisms. It’s hard to pay attention to someone whose delivery has annoying or distracting aspects, such as poor tonal quality, nervous twitches, no eye contact, and lack of focus on the subject. Keep your interest in an ineffective speaker by listening ahead — try to discern where they’re going, and focus on the implications of their message.
- Getting overstimulated by something the speaker says. Did the speaker bring up a touchy subject or say something particularly exciting? When this kind of thing happens, the tendency is to fixate on that statement and not listen to the rest of the message. If this happens, try to put your excitement on hold as you hear out the speaker, then work through whatever it was that got you going.
- Listening primarily for facts. Speakers sometimes convey something that isn’t accurate or clear because words can be poor representations of reality. Be aware of nonverbal cues, such as body language, tonality, and pitch.
- Outlining everything. It’s hard to listen to a speaker at the same time you’re constructing an outline of what you think are their thoughts. Often you create an outline that doesn’t match the speaker’s. When that happens, the listener’s tendency is to try to reconcile their outline with the speaker’s message. When you do that, you’re not listening. Stop doing it.
- Faking attention to the speaker. Some people may not have anything interesting to say. Is it polite to let them talk while letting your mind wander to wishful thoughts that they’d stop? Of course not. Either give a speaker your full attention or say you can’t listen just then. If the message isn’t important, there’s no reason to listen to it. On the other hand, if it is, maybe you should think about why you don’t want to give the speaker your attention. Is it because you have one of these bad listening habits?
- Allowing distractions to interfere. It’s hard to focus on a speaker when there’s noise nearby. If moving away from the noise is the answer, do so. If you then need to clear the internal noise from your head, ask the speaker for a few seconds, then give them your complete attention.
- Avoiding difficult material. Are you a lazy listener? You can get that way with a difficult or technical topic — it’s tempting to tune out as much as possible. If you’re in this situation, ask the speaker to use terms that are easier to understand. Most people will be flattered.
- Letting emotional cues cloud your focus. Often seemingly neutral words or gestures can arouse strong emotional reactions in people. In most cases, the speaker isn’t trying to stir up anything — they don’t know what that word or gesture means to you. If you can’t refocus and regain your self-control quickly, ask the speaker to wait for a second, and turn your focus inward until you can calm those feelings. It’s also a good idea to let the speaker know what happened, so they’ll know to avoid using your 'hot button' words and gestures.
- Wasting the advantage of thought speed. You think at the rate of 600 words per minute. The average speaking speed is 300 words per minute. What do a lot of folks do with the extra time this creates? They daydream or let their thoughts wander. Use the extra time to expand the speaker’s meaning and to focus on eliminating any bad listening habits you might have.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
What happens when you don’t avoid these pitfalls? You’ll be making progress — in the wrong jungle! You may have the best technique in the world, your questions may be the best in the business, your products and services might be outstanding — but if you lack the keen insight that comes with real listening, don’t expect to be in the right jungle.
Here are some ideas to help you improve your listening skills:
Reflect on the way the speaker organized what they’re saying. They had a reason for presenting their message that way. Work to discern the structure of the message; it often clarifies the meaning by putting everything in context. If you can’t figure out the structure of the speaker’s thoughts, ask: 'I’m a little unclear as to where we’re going with this, and I really want to understand. Give me a general idea of what you’re trying to say, so I have a better understanding of your focus.'
Summarize with notes. If you don’t remember conversations well (many people don’t), try to summarize speaker’s points with notes. People usually find it very flattering to be asked, 'Do you mind if I take notes?' It shows that the listener believes the message is important.
Listen for ideas as well as facts. Facts are great for support, but most people are trying to convey ideas — so listen for the general idea. If you can’t discern one, ask the speaker what their general idea is.
Summarize often. When a speaker makes a number of points and they all seem important, paraphrase them and ask the speaker whether you have it right. If you’re on target, great! If not, ask the speaker to help you. For example:
Speaker: I really need X. Having Y would be nice too. I don’t care about Z.
You: So X is really important, Y is pretty important, and Z doesn’t matter?
Speaker: That’s right.
EXERCISE
Ask another person to draw something exactly as you describe it, and describe an object, such as a tree, without naming the object or anything unique to it, such as leaves or branches.
Look at the drawing. It’s pretty amusing.
Next, you draw what your companion describes. Really listen to the exact way the object is described. Continue this until you can produce pictures that are consistent with the descriptions and convey an image exactly in words other than uniquely descriptive ones.