Practical Eloquence Blog |

How Listening Too Intently Can Hurt Your Sales Effectiveness

By Jack Malcolm / 5.27.2011 / 1 Comment

Two of the most important things you can do to be successful in sales are to plan your sales calls and to listen carefully to your customer. But, as in so much in life, too much of a good thing may actually reduce your sales effectiveness. When you listen too intently for the answers you want, there’s a chance you may miss other critical information.

I always begin my listening module with a brief activity in which I ask the audience to listen closely to a situation and be prepared for a test at the end of it. I carefully choose my words to ensure that I give them all the information they need to answer my question at the end, but invariably at least two thirds of the audience gets it wrong. The debrief shows them that their major mistake is made because they are focusing so closely on what they believe to be the relevant information that they miss the bit they need.

Does this sound familiar? Have you ever been in a sales call and been so intent on listening for the words that match your call objectives that you miss other customer needs or concerns?

Expression

How to Be Brief

By Jack Malcolm / 5.23.2011 / 1 Comment

If they cut the lines, will your message get through?

Brevity is a communication virtue because it increases the chance of your message being heard and understood. The best way to be brief is to state your point up front and then add detail as necessary.

In this increasingly distracted world, people just won’t take the time to listen for very long to what you have to say, so it’s important to get your message across succinctly and efficiently. Make sure that if they tune out, they have at least heard the main point.

Think about a newspaper article. The headline tells you the main point, so that if you’re too busy to read the article, at least you have a general idea of what happened. Next, you read the first paragraph, which tells you the “who, what, where, when, how and why”. Journalists call this the inverted pyramid technique, in which the critical information is at the top of the pyramid and the least significant details at the bottom.[1]

Besides ensuring that your main point will be heard, brevity will make it easier to understand. The mental discipline that you go through to figure out your main point can only help to clarify your message. This is why busy leaders like Churchill and Reagan insisted that any issues presented to them had to be contained on one sheet of paper. Think about it: Should we invade France in 1943 or 1944? Negotiate with this fellow Gorbachev? One sheet of paper.

[1] In my classes, I’ve often told the story that the inverted pyramid was invented by America journalists during the Civil War who feared the lines could be cut at any time. Sadly, in researching this article I have just discovered it’s a myth. I say sadly, because it’s a good story and it allows me to compare your listener’s attention to telegraph wires that can be cut at any time.

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The Talkers’ Club

By Jack Malcolm / 5.19.2011 / 1 Comment

It seems a lot higher when you get close to the edge

There I was, poised confidently on the edge of the platform, 10 meters above the sparkling blue water of the pool. I leaped, soaring briefly above the platform before plunging, head first and slicing cleanly into the cool water.

That’s the edited version. You saw the end, but you missed the five or ten minutes before. First, the bravado on the side of the pool, bragging to my friends that I could do it—ten meters, head first, no problem.

Then, the long climb up the ladder, with the pool getting smaller and smaller with every step. Finally, inching to the edge and peering over…

There’s no way I’m going to do that!

Oh, come on, you said you were going to do it. You better!

But I might get hurt!

Hey, lots of people do it.

But what if I land wrong?

And all the while, my friends are down there yelling: “Bawk, bawk! Come on you big chicken!”

I’m reminded of this scene often when I talk to some of my friends. You see, I work for myself, and some of my friends envy me. There are a few of them, who often say: “Someday I’ll do what you do. I’ll go out on my own.” Some of them have even taken steps to make their dreams a reality—they have great ideas, do a little bit of research—but when they step close to the edge, it might as well be the rim of the Grand Canyon.

Book reviews - Presentations - Sales

Persuasion Lessons from the Man Who Got Bin Laden

By Jack Malcolm / 5.16.2011 / 1 Comment

I was intrigued to read a profile on Vice Admiral William McRaven, the commander of Joint Special Operations Command which executed the nearly flawless raid to kill bin Laden. Admiral McRaven wrote a book, SpecOps: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare : Theory and Practice, which examines eight case studies of special operations raids and distills lessons from these into six principles that must be followed to varying degrees in order to succeed in these highly risky ventures.

My intention in reading the book was simple curiosity: I happen to like military history and I’m always intrigued by people who can combine action and scholarliness. As I read, however, I was struck by some of the parallels with practical persuasion efforts. So, with advance apologies to the Admiral, I’m taking the liberty of applying most of his lessons to persuasion campaigns, especially presentations and sales calls to high level decision makers.