Listening is the foundation of modern sales. The speaker breaks it into four dimensions: mind (setting aside assumptions), heart (genuine empathy), body (showing attention), and mouth (reflective phrases like "so what I heard you say was"). She contrasts this with "crocodile selling," the outdated aggressive approach of talking at people.
Chapters
wanted to talk to you today because I've been inspired by the members in my Accelerate Sales Hub. And this month we've been focusing in on listening, which is such an essential sales tool and skill. And what's inspired me is that we know how to listen. We know— well, not all of us know, but thinking about listening, when we're listening to our clients or potential clients, we know that we've got to focus in on them. We know that we've got to listen with our minds, with an open heart, with assumptions laid on the side of the table. We know that we have to listen with our body so that people know that we're listening. And we know that part of listening is using our mouth by exploring things with people and checking in with people, using phrases like, so what I heard you say was, and can I just make sure that I've got this right? So that we're not taking an assumption in our head and making that their reality. So this is such an important tool in selling. And in my book, More Sales, Less Marketing, in the sales system that I've built, um, and teach in that book, the first step of selling is listening. And here's why often people hate selling. Why? Because they think it starts with talking, because they've been talked at and sold at by people in the past, and they think, well, that's what selling is. And I have a term for that type of selling. I call it crocodile selling, because are there crocodiles still on earth? Absolutely. But we are absolutely not in the age of the dinosaurs, and that type of selling is crocodile selling and does belong in the age of the dinosaurs, and their time is done. So the new form of selling is graceful and easy and honest and has to start with listening, which is why we've been focusing in on this this month. But as I've been working with the team, I really started to think about what are we actually listening for?
