Strategic Communications and Building a strong Sales Team...

Active Listening is the Key in Creating Customer Rapport

• Paraphrase demonstrates, through behavior, that you are interested in what your customer is telling you. It conveys intentions of building rapport.
• Perception Check is one of the most caring skills we can utilize. It conveys concern for your customer – for his/her feelings. Most of us would like to be able to discuss our emotions, but are rarely given permission to do so. Perception Check gives that permission.
• Active Listening Skills can satisfy the deep subconscious needs of your customer – to feel important, to feel valued, respected and worthwhile.
• Active Listening Skills teaches how to ask good, penetrating questions. Listen for the unspoken messages conveyed through tones of voice, facial expression and posture.
• Your signal of interest (words, tone, gestures, eye contact, and body language) demonstrate Congruence in Communication and builds a privileged relationship.
• Ask Productive Questions. Listen carefully. Don’t mentally wander when your customer is telling you something you’ve heard a hundred times before. Utilize your “Lag Time”.
• The Role Renegotiation Model is beneficial in the following areas: First, useful in the building relationships with your customer. Second, the Role Renegotiation model tells us how we can get along with your customer. Third, helps us manage relationships in such a way that it is productive and not disruptive. Fourth, fundamental in establishing and building initial rapport and most importantly, “long range” relationships.
• Behavior Description helps your customer differentiate between actual behavior and inference, to coach your customer to describe the behaviors that caused him or her to draw a particular inference and to point out incongruece in your customer’s communication.
• Productive Questions are the fuel for perpetuating the conversation and creating privileged relationships. These questions prompt your customer’s stories and participation, which gives your customer permission to tell more.
• Active Listening Skills give you the courage to test your assumptions. Incorrect assumptions lie at the root of numerous communication failures.
• Focus on your customer and give them individual attention…creating positive outcomes!
• Direct Expression of Feeling is sending an “I message” (first person) in which the salesperson owns his/her feelings. Indirect expression of feeling is sending a “you” message which puts the burden on the customer. It is more confusing and hurtful to the customer when a salesperson described his/her feelings indirectly rather than directly.
• When you listen to your customer, you will often hear criticism directed toward you or your company. There are four listening skills that can be helpful when dealing with criticism: Paraphrase, Perception check, Direct Expression of Feeling and Fogging.
• Fogging keeps the critical cycle from starting and stops the critical cycle once it has begun.
• Negative Inquiry is coaching your customer to constructively criticize you in specifics, rather than in generalities. It is a form of creative questions.