Are You Utilizing These Important Sales Techniques?
Too often people are not communicating effectively and therefore are missing out on important sales opportunities. This becomes especially relevant when you’re trying to convince someone to purchase your product/idea/consulting service and you are focused on your needs and your end game: to close the deal.
What if we changed our focus and instead concentrated on our counterpart? Generally speaking, you should spend the first 80 percent of the conversation focused on your counterpart. Doing so will allow you to develop rapport as you learn about your counterpart and what’s important to them.
1. Active Listening
Active listening is hard. We often “listen” by waiting for our chance to respond and inject our point of view. To listen properly, we need to give our counterparts our undivided attention.
Listening is more than hearing the words. It’s not just what our counterpart is saying, but how they say it—including their tone, body language, and more.
When we’re laser-focused on our counterpart’s words, tone, and body language, it often reveals what they are actually saying. As Stephen Covey wrote in his book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Listen to understand.
2. Tone of Voice
Your voice is your most powerful tool. Using the proper tone of voice is critical, as your voice is the first thing someone notices about you. It makes or breaks Tactical Empathy. Remember that how you say something is more important than what you say.
For the best results, use a warm, friendly voice because most people will decide whether they like you by your tone. And don’t forget to smile! Smiling while you’re speaking makes your tone warmer, and people will notice—even over the phone!
Your voice will have an emotional impact, positive or negative. An assertive, blunt, or direct tone is counterproductive and will ensure a negative impact.
3. Tactical Empathy®
Tactical Empathy is the calibrated application of emotional intelligence. You can recognize your counterpart’s perspective, then (you must) vocalize that recognition to demonstrate you understand their position.
All humans desire to be heard and understood. You can cause pleasurable chemical changes in the brain by listening at a deep level. Tactical Empathy does not mean you agree with them or even like them. Instead, you’re simply demonstrating that you understand their thoughts and feelings so well you can summarize them. It fulfills their desire to have another understand what the lay of the land looks like from their (the speaker’s) frame of reference.
4. Staying Curious
Why is your counterpart insistent on their position? Why did they make a particular statement? They no doubt have their reasons, but they aren’t always vocalized. How do we learn what these reasons are? Easy: By maintaining a curious mindset!
When you make the conversation about them—not you—you show true interest. The continued use of Tactical Empathy has you focusing on the motivation for the statement, question, or behavior of your counterpart. Before freaking out about unexpected behavior or responding to a terrible statement or question, ask yourself, “Where is this coming from> Why did he just say that? Why did she just ask that?” People will say things that they really don’t mean. They will ask question A but really what is the answer to question B (which they refuse to ask)? Through a Quick 2+1 and well-placed Calibrated Questions, the counterpart will reveal Black Swans, meaning the hidden messages behind their statements and actions.