How to Sell More as an Inside Sales Rep: Listen!

If your sales calls are just calls, you won’t close a deal. Ever.

Without conversation your prospects will never want to talk to you. Think about it. How many times have you received a sales call from a pushy salesman who didn’t seem to listen to anything you said? The salesman asks a question and when you provide an answer they don’t even acknowledge it.

From first-hand experience I can say that it’s a very frustrating experience!

A sales strategy that doesn’t actively involve listening to your prospect will result in a lot of prospects exiting the buying process. A lot will hang up on you or finding some excuse as to why they can’t continue the sales process.

I drive down the I-15 every day on my commute to work. On the drive, one of my favorite billboards is a black-and-white image of a car salesman with huge ears and a caption that says something like, “It’s better than having a big mouth.”

Every salesperson can learn a valuable lesson from that billboard. Don’t be known as the salesman with a big mouth who doesn’t know how to stop talking and listen. Instead, listen for their problems and help the prospect solve them. Otherwise, they will just find someone else that will – perhaps your competitor.

To help ensure that your sales reps are taking the time to listen to their prospects, don’t write scripts. Instead, write outlines with talking points. A great resource for designing this type of script is an article called, “How to Write an Inside Sales Script,” which highlights the First Call Sequence, a concept created by Ken Krogue.

The Manager of our Sales Account Executives provided some great tips and techniques that sales reps can use to help increase the quality of their sales calls in terms of listening.

“One of the best things a sales rep can do is take notes during the call,” he said. “Write down the prospect’s pain points, then restate the problems they are trying to solve with your solution. If you aren’t actively listening to your prospect, you could be wasting a lot of time trying to solve the wrong problems. You could even lose a potential sale.”

Don’t be the salesman who loses an easy sale because you didn’t listen. Make sure your prospect is receiving the attention they deserve.

What other tips do you have regarding how to listen and how it has paid off for in your experience?

Photo Credit: bit.ly/QmoRWC