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6: Communication Mastery

For salesmen, the majority of the job is communication. Face-to-face, on the phone, or electronically, the majority of their day is spend sending and receiving information to other people. However, communications skills are very poorly developed. The author claims a 30% efficiency rate of communication, meaning 7 out of 10 messages are not received, or not understood - and to a salesman, this means that even if every message that succeeds results in a sale, he'll be wasting 70% of his time. It also means that if you improve your skills and increase the success rate of getting through to other people, it can have a major impact on your sales performance.

Principles and Tips

Here comes another list of general principles:

• Be enthusiastic. Too many salesmen rely on scripts that they repeat from memory, and have done this so often they're bored of it. If you're not excited by the product you're selling, the customer won't get excited about buying it. Also, the enthusiasm you feel for your product must be genuine. People can spot a phony.
• Be accurate. The facts and claims you make about your product have to be honest. People don't buy from someone they don't trust, and even a "little lie" undermines confidence. Be scrupulous about not stretching the truth.
• Be timely. Being on time for appointments is critical. "Fashionably late" only applies to social events. In business, if you're not on time, it means you don't value the customer's time, or aren't in control of your own time.

And while we're at it, some specific tips:

• Make eye contact and be aware of your expressions and body language
• Try to speak at a pace that isn't more than 140 words per minute - studies show that people can't keep up with you if you speak much faster than that. It's also an observation that salesmen will talk at a pace of 180 to 220 words per minute, feeding the stereotype of "fast-talking."
• When speaking on the phone, use a mirror to monitor your facial expressions - if you look bored and annoyed, it comes through in your voice.
• When listening to someone else speak, use positive phrases in place of neutral or non-committal ones: yes, great, tell me more, etc.
• Avoid overreacting to negative statements. Find a positive way to address them rather than getting defensive.
• Consider the other person's personality style, and communicate to them accordingly
• Pay close attention to the meaning, not just the words the other person is saying, and especially to the subtext: "I might" means "I have some reluctance"
• Address people informally, by their first names, instead of using titles
• Take notes when meeting with someone. Even if your memory's good, it demonstrates you are paying attention. Don't do this on a device like a laptop or cell phone - they will assume you are bored and are checking your e-mail rather than listening.
• Ask open-ended questions that encourage others to speak at length. Asking a person to "tell me about yourself" will give you a wealth of information about them. "Tell me about your business [or your needs]" will identify opportunities that you might not have expected or imagined.

Listen

The "secret" to effective communication isn't about talking - it's about listening.

Listening to a person feeds their self-esteem and makes them feel more connected to you, and more inclined to listen and genuinely pay attention to what you have to say. And because most salesmen are prone to trying to overpowering people with words, the one who takes the time to pay attention to a client is at a distinct advantage.

A loose statistic: most salesmen stop listening to the customer after only seven words (EN: no idea how this was measured or proven, but it's probably not an exaggeration). Eager to shift the conversation to his advantage, the salesman will listen only as much as necessary to catch a "cue" for their script to begin, and will even interrupt a prospect to take control of the conversation and herd them toward a sale.

Be conscious of how often you interrupt clients - and stop doing it. Also, be aware of habits that suggest impatience of boredom - drumming your fingers, toe-tapping, folded arms.

A customer will be inclined to buy a product if you can deliver a pitch that is tailored to their needs - and the way you learn what their needs are is by listening to them. When a customer is talking, they are telling you what approach you need to take in order to win their business.

The author refers to his own "Bauer's Rule of One Thousand" in which he states that for every 1,000 words a client speaks, a salesman should say 100. (EN: see the previous note on the research done - the 10% rule). He remarks that in transcripts of sales calls, he found a salesmen would let the client say about ten words before interrupting, then go into a long ramble of up to 5.000 words "without even coming up for air."

Another loose tip is to wait two full seconds after someone else finishes a sentence before you begin to speak. Not only does this help you break the habit of interrupting, but it sends the impression to the other person that you genuinely listened to them and are considering what they have said.

The author presents an eight-question quiz, with a scoring key that indicates more strongly you can agree to each of these statements, the better you are doing:

1. Are you able to determine when a client's tone of voice does not match the words they are saying?
2. Do you hear what is not being said? That is, do you notice topics they seem to be purposefully avoiding?
3. Are you able to tell what needs or challenges they have, as evidenced by what they say?
4. Can you detect when someone is overstating or understating something?
5. Are you really listening to the other person, or preparing your response?
6. Do you give the other person "gaps" when you speak to allow them to interject a thought?
7. Do you recognize the most critical need of a person when you are listening to them?
8. Do you merely hear what a person is saying, or try to determine the message they're trying to send?

It's also important to consider that listening is an active task, not a passive one, that requires you to stay focused on the conversation and concentrate of what the other person is telling you. Except for taking notes on what's being said, you should not be doing anything else when having a conversation. This is especially important for telephone conversation, where the distance puts you in a position where the other person won't notice if you're doing other things- until it becomes obvious that you're not really paying attention to what they're saying.

Cell phones have recently become a serious issue for salesman, who constantly break off from a conversation to answer an inbound call or text message. While he acknowledges that the telephone is a useful sales tool, and being able to be in touch anywhere or anytime is valuable, there are certain times to turn it off - and one of those times is when you're dealing with another person face-to-face. The author advocates this attitude toward mobile devices: they should be used for your convenience, not the convenience of others who might want to interrupt you at any time.

Personality Styles and Communication

The author refers to four different kinds of communication, which are preferred by different personality types:

• The novel - Deep-thinkers prefer the "whole story," the conclusions and the facts on which they are based
• Short Stories - People who seek context prefer a short story that presents facts in a scenario that makes their relevance apparent
• Bullet Points - Domineering people demand a quick summary of facts, without details or context
• Phrases- Social people who focus on emotion and insight prefer apt phrases.

Until you discover a person's conversational style, the most effective method of address is generally bullet points, as they are the easiest to understand. People who want more detail or context can ask for it, those who aren't receptive to an idea won't give enough attention to a longer or more oblique method of communication.

(EN: This has been echoed in other places, and have suggest that until people demonstrate otherwise, you should speak to them as if they were a small child with a pistol: simply, but respectfully. My sense is that's a bit dismissive, but essentially right - not all people are dumb or belligerent, but until you have established a relationship, you haven't "earned" their full attention and they won't give you much time or thought. Once they get to know you and open up, you'll likely discover otherwise - but until you do, proceed with caution.)

In that regard, salesmen often start off in the wrong mode: they will seek to schedule an hour-long presentation (5,000 to 10,000 words) in which they pour out a flood of details to a prospect with whom they are not well acquainted, and who is not inclined to pay much attention.

In regard to the way in which they relate to others, domineering people seem direct and impersonal. They may be unaware of how they come off, or they merely may not care because anything but a short and direct conversation is seen as a waste of time. Social people seek to relate to others, and are good at establishing rapport with some, though to others they may seem overly chatty and a bit intrusive. People who seek context are the best listeners, but they tend to take things as they are an d buy into the perspective of another person rather than identify and dismiss it as flawed. The deep-thinker is a skilled communicator and provides a great deal of explanation of complex information, but they may seem like effete academics who are too lost in the granular details and who miss the big picture.

Positive Communication

The author suggests that, regardless of what their normal mode of communication is, many salesmen find themselves falling into a common practice: complaining. In particular, they complain to their sales manager about the various reasons they can't sell a product. Not all complaints are invalid - at the heart of any complaint, there is a request. A good sales manager will learn to seek the request in a salesman's complaints, and a good salesman will consider a problem and approach his manager with a request rather than a complain, giving specific details about what he feels he needs to close a deal.

The author provides a rater long list of watchwords - things that a salesman should avoid saying because they have a negative connotation. Some examples are:

• Instead of using terms about the transaction - buying or selling an item - speak to "owning" it.
• Say "investment" rather than "payment" or "cost, especially in B2B sales.
• Ask them to "approve" rather than "sign"
• Call it an "agreement" rather than a "contract"
• Call it a "customer statement" rather than a "credit application"
• "Share information" rather than "explain" or "prove"
• Mention "savings" rather than "discounts" or "deals"
• Ask them to "forgive me" rather than saying "I'm sorry"
• Refer to you "team leader" rather than "sales manager"
• Congratulate the buyer on making a purchase rather than thanking them for the sale

(EN: I would posit that this is largely word-play, that there is nothing objectionable about any of the "don't use" terms above, but about the situation to which they pertain. It seems a bit disingenuous to continue the same practices and use different words to attempt to disguise the situation - but admittedly, a buyer can be put off immediately if they recognize the tactic by the salesman's use of terms.)