| The Importance of Listening When Marketing...and Selling. |
Here's a definition of marketing that's useful in our discussion: "Effective marketing is communicating the right information to someone that will make them want to listen to you." It could also be said that effective marketing is saying the right thing in the right way as frequently as you can, to build awareness and create desire.
If that's effective marketing, what's effective selling?
Effective selling is getting someone who has decided to listen to you to make a buying decision. That's it. Marketing is primarily to create awareness and desire. Sales is primarily for enabling the prospect to make a purchase. We do this just by listening to what the prospect has to say in response to the questions we ask. If we listen closely, we'll often be able to determine what prospects want to buy, how much they want to buy, when they want to take delivery, and, quite importantly, what might get in the way of buying from you.
What influences how a prospect will listen to you? Find out in Sales Secret #4.
Send any questions, comments, stories, or sales problems to dan@optimumbizdev.com, and I'll personally send you a response!
LAST WEEK'S HOMEWORK: Last week, did you catch yourself when you stopped listening? What were you thinking about, or what were you doing? These are habits that you engage in often. If the future, try to find a way to refocus and "get present" to what's really happening. In an instant, you could miss something that could make or break a sale later on.
THIS WEEK'S HOMEWORK: Listen closely to your prospects this week. What are they really saying? What are they not saying?
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