Guest Post – Direct Sales Consultants Stop Talking
If you want more customers and a more successful direct sales business, stop talking and start listening. Customers actually care more about being understood than about your products. By listening to their needs and wants, you will have their attention when you tell them about your products. When you have their attention, you will sell more products. More listening means more sales.
Most people are passive listeners. Passive listening means that you hear what a person has to say, but you do not react to it. Many passive listeners are thinking about what they want to say while the other person is speaking instead of truly digesting what the person is saying. In direct sales, your customers will quickly recognize your inability to listen and will most likely not continue as your customers. They want to be heard, and you can’t hear them if you are talking.
Successful people and successful direct sellers are active listeners. Active listening is a method of listening that places emphasis on the customer’s needs. Active listening not only focuses on the content of the message, it also focuses on the emotions underlying the message. Active listeners pay attention to words, tone, emphasis and body language. However, active listening doesn’t mean your reaction is to interrupt or cut someone off while they are speaking. It means that you listen closely and react to their message after they are done speaking. Leave your agenda out of the conversation until you fully understand the customer and have reacted to their wants and needs.
In a perfect world, seller would listen to buyer, and buyer would listen to seller; there would be a free exchange of ideas. However, we live in a world that is far from perfect. Direct sellers face extreme competition and potential customers want answers and products as quickly as possibly. The free exchange of ideas is often destroyed by competitive pressure and the fast pace of business.
Sellers often believe that they are in a position of power and jump on their soap box when describing or promoting their products. However, it is often the potential customers who are in the position of power. After all, they have the money and it is their decisions on whether to buy your products or go elsewhere that determine your bottom line. Once you realize that the customers wield most of the power, you will step down off your soapbox, stop talking and start listening.
The direct sales business presents a wonderful opportunity to own your own business, work your own hours, set your own rules and live your life as you want. However, it is a competitive business filled with many obstacles on the road to success. Marketing and promotion are keys to any successful business, but this often consists of talking about yourself, your products and your business. However, while you are marketing, promoting and talking, it is important to remember to listen to your customers. Listening encourages trust, respect, and sales. Stop talking and start listening to get more sales!
When consultants learn to listen more than they talk they always achieve success in business. Deb Bixler provides direct sales training for consultants on how to increase cash flow at home by putting systems into place that create a consistent cash flow.
Deb Bixler is a home party plan business coach who teaches systems that create success in any party plan business. Incorporating her direct sales business tips into your business you will create a consistent income year round. Learn more about home party plan success systems that work for all companies here.
