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Listening
A lot of people think the opposite of talking is waiting to talk. It’s not. It’s listening.
Forbes magazine quoted Andrew Tobias in one of their issues as saying “The smartest think you can do in a negotiation, often, is keep your mouth shut.”
But more than merely keeping one’s mouth shut, what exactly is listening?
The topic will be thoroughly explored and effective techniques will be imparted. Ineffective listening is the cause of many accidents and production breakdowns, lost sales and lost customers, personality clashes and poor morale, poor communication and misguided management.
Hearing is one of the 5 senses. But listening is an art. Unfortunately, it’s become a lost art. We’ve become a nation of talkers. Many people don’t take the time to listen while others were never taught the skill or the importance of it. A salesperson that can remember names is one step ahead of all the other salespeople out there who can’t.
There are many other ways salespeople will benefit from improved listening skills. We’re pretty decent listeners until we go to school. Then, somehow, we learn how not to listen. Cogent’s methodology has a heavy emphasis on listening.
Here are some thoughts on the subject of listening:
“It is impossible to overemphasize the immense needs humans have to be really listened to, to be taken seriously, to be understood.” – John Powell
“Listening can make the difference between a mediocre company and a great one.” –Lee Iacocca
“In selling, there is no greater asset.” –Mark McCormack, the late agent to Tiger Woods.
It is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal.” –Shakespeare
“Easy listening exists only on the radio.” –David Barkan
Click here to hear information about how Starbucks employees are taught to listen.
“I think the one lesson I have learned is that there is no substitute for paying attention.” –Diane Sawyer
“The key to success is to get out into the store and listen to what the associates have to say. It’s terribly important for everyone to get involved. Our best ideas come from clerks and stockboys.” – Sam Walton
“The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.” –Henry David Thoreau
“The reason you don’t understand me Edith is because I’m talkin’ to you in English and you’re listening in dingbat.” –Archie Bunker
“Man’s inability to communicate is a result of his failure to listen effectively, skillfully, and with understanding to another person.” –Carl Rogers, psychologist
“Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.” –Dr. Joyce Brothers
“Few people…have had much training in listening. Living in a competitive culture, most of us are most of the time chiefly concerned with getting our own views across, and we tend to find other people’s speeches a tedious interruption of our own ideas.” –S I Hayakawa
“Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice.” – Polonius in “Hamlet”
“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” –Stephen Covey
Click here for a short audio clip on listening.
“Wise is the listener who doesn’t feel compelled to fill up all the blank spaces.” –Charles Swindoll
“Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger.” –James 1:19
“Never speak of yourself to others; make them talk about themselves instead; therein lies the whole art of pleasing. Everybody knows it, and everyone forgets it.” –Edmond and Jules de Goncourt
“If we have listening ears, God speaks to us in our own language, whatever that language be.” – Mahatma Ghandi
“You can’t fake listening. It shows.” –Rachel Welch
“The silent person is often worth listening to.” –Japanese proverb
“One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears- by listening.” -Dean Rusk
“Good listeners generally make more sales than good talkers.” -B.C. Holwich
“Listening is arguably the most important aspect of the selling process, yet it’s usually the weakest part of a sales professional’s skills.” –Jeffrey Gitomer
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” –Winston Churchill
“Ya know, I ain’t used to talking to a closed door.” -Rocky
"There’s an art in silence. There’s an eloquence in it also." - Cicero
