October 09 – Article

BUT I AM A GOOD LISTENER!

We live in a world with lots of talkers….and not enough listeners.

Sometimes, we can feel pressured “to talk more”:
To let clients know about our new product or service.
To tell our employees the best way to get things done.
To be the first person at a team meeting to speak up and offer our ideas.

As it turns out, being a good listener is an important part of being a good salesperson, a good boss, and a good team player. Take the example of a client who got repeated complaints from customers that she wasn’t listening. When her boss tried to talk with her about it, she just cut him off by saying: “But I am a good listener!”

At first it was hard to get a word in edgewise with this client. So to practice listening we tried some role-playing. We took turns pretending to interview each other on a hot topic. She went first, of course, and asked me: “Do you think we should have the death penalty in Canada?”

No sooner had I opened my mouth to answer her question, but she jumped in with her own ideas and opinions. She even went so far as to try and persuade me to agree with her and, when I didn’t, she just kept on interrupting and started to argue.

In our coaching sessions she learned how to be a better listener by practicing 4 key skills:
1. paraphase
2. summarize
3. no interruptions
4. ask questions
.

Often clients are stumped when I encourage that they ask more questions.
If this happens to you sometimes, take a look at 17 TIPS FOR ASKING QUESTIONS