Listen & Understand!
by Amber Kossak
“Listen with the intent to understand, not with the intent to reply” Steven R. Covey
How important is it to listen? Actually listening to someone and understanding their point of view can sometimes be difficult, however; in order to sell, educate, and build trust listening plays a major role. Being approachable is definitely one way to build on this foundation. When you are approachable your customers and associates will find you to be likable, pleasant, and friendly. When someone is approachable they will more than likely be humble. Many may think humility is a quality of weakness; however, it is quite the opposite. Humility adds to our character making us strong and mature human beings. When we are humble it is much easier to listen, learn, and accept what we need to change in order to better ourselves personally and as a team.
You may find someone who has the best abilities in the world but they are not successful. This person may have a wonderful father and mother with friends who support them but they find themselves stagnate never moving forward in life. Why? We may know of others who do not have a support system of family or even friends but they choose to make things happen in their life. People react the way they do for many different reasons but it is always going to be up to each and every one of us to listen and learn.
Most are familiar with the saying you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink! Well, no matter how hard you try, or how much you help someone you cannot make them do something unless they do it for themselves. They must have it made up in their mind what they want to do and then the most difficult part for anyone will be the follow-through or “commitment”.
In our trainings, we like to talk about the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. When you wake up in the morning you may want today, to be different, but how? Without planning or a goal in mind most wants could end up just being a passing thought. If you want to educate your customers and sell more Fuel System Cleaning, then you most likely need to adjust your approach to the customer, or in most cases, we find the problem is simply not offering the service. Ask every time and you may be surprised what happens. Listen to your customers, and they will listen to you. When you listen to your customers you will have understanding, which in turn gives you the knowledge necessary when offering services. Whether your customers purchase the service today or come back six months later you are building trust. Be proactive, it is your choice to listen, understand and make decisions; therefore choose to sell more than your neighboring store. Do not blame others, you have the choice; utilize the tools you have at hand and start listening today, because “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes