Hear me now, Sell me later!

Do what every customer wants their salesperson to do

In 1987, Saturday night live ran a skit with two body builders called, Hanz and Franz. One of their tag lines was, “Hear me now, Obey me later!” Very funny skit. I mention it for the concept that this line brings to salespeople.

Every customer or prospect you meet feels the same way about you when you call on them. “Hear me now. Sell me later”. As salespeople, we struggle with this concept. We get pressured by our customers to speed up the sales call. Customers might ask us to, “Let’s cut to the chase! What are you selling today?” This shortening of the sales call leaves out the most important part: high-value questions in the discovery phase of the sale.

However, everyone in the world is seeking to be understood. Customers want salespeople to understand why they do what they do and why they think what they think. Once a customer feels understood, then they are open to listening to you. In Stephen Covey’s 7 habits, “Seek first to understand, then be understood,” gives us a primary rule in sales. If you talk first, customers tend to not listen. The main reason is that they are thinking of their own story or experience when you are talking.

Methods of Listening and Hearing better:

Reduce distractions: Turn off your phone, make eye contact, ask to meet at a place that will be less distracting to your customer.
Mirror selectively: Mirroring is repeating back to a customer some of the key words they use. For example, your customer says, “We never use grain contracts because those things never work?” You reply: “They never work”. It’s not really a question, but your customer will typically jump in to explain what they meant. I added the selectively part to this type of question as it needs to be used very selectively. Otherwise, it becomes annoying to have someone repeatedly mirror your words.
Paraphrase-Summarize: I feel much better about summarizing than I do about mirroring. Summarizing is a very non-threatening way to let your customer know that you were listening to them. Paraphrasing or summarizing is just taking all the information from a sales discussion and putting it in your words. For example: “You were using XYZ products from ABC agronomy company. Yields were 65 bushels. You switched to using DEF’s products? In two wet years, you have reached 80 bushels?” Once they confirm, you summarize their ROI calculation. Once that is confirmed, you clarify their plans for the upcoming year.
Questions: Plan your key questions. Write them down in your notebook so you can refer to them on the sales call. Think about what a customer is sharing. Does it make sense? Have you heard other producers in the area doing this? How long have they been doing it? How did they determine that it was such a good way to run their operation?
Deflect the questions onto a generic person like themselves. For example: Let’s say you are calling on a producer who uses a fungicide that you feel doesn’t work. In addition, you feel like they are using incorrect calculations to determine the ROI on that fungicide. Instead of asking, “Why do you use that fungicide? Nobody is using it because it’s too expensive, etc.” You can instead ask, “So, if a producer with 1500 acres on a corn and bean rotation uses this product at this rate of application, then they end up with 12 more bushels to the acre?” This style of question deflects it off of asking the producer about their specific situation. It’s a much less threatening way to ask. After they answer, you can follow up with the same style question about their ROI calculations. Example: “And when you are figuring out the ROI on it, they are taking into consideration…X…Y…Z?”

Try some of these listening methods today. Try them with peers and family. Afterall, they are just good communication methods and can be used with anyone. They are effective at selling, work, and on extended family at the holiday dinner table. See how effective you really are when you use these listening methods!