“Do you want ice with that?”
Earlier this year I gave up drinking beer (gluten intolerance, not choice!). So now, I enjoy a pint of cider. Not Strongbow or Blackthorn though, not to my taste. If there’s no local cider, I’ll have a Bulmers or Magners. As you probably know, they are marketed to be drunk with ice. So the bartender asks “Do you want ice with that?” And I answer “NO THANKS!” And they bring me a pint glass full of ice. Why? They don’t listen. They think they already know the answer, they ask the question and don’t listen for the answer. Frustrating! But how much more frustrating is it to find your prospect/customer has not been listening to your benefit statement, or your objection answers? How painful is it? How costly is it? Very! So, let’s remind overselves how to get our prospect/customer/boss/spouse/partner to listen. ASK QUESTIONS. Get your prospect’s mind engaged on his/her favourite topic… him/her self. Ask questions. Engage. Relate. Close!
Kieran Bird
December 18th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Kieran,
I loved the anecdote. I always believed that I hated cider until one day a mate of mine with a similar ‘intolerance’ to yours made me sip from his Magners pint. I ‘listened’. And it worked. I love it.
We are all driven by ‘defaults’, What color we like, what TV, what beer, what celebrity and this runs into a lot of things. We stop being aware and observant and that stops us becoming spontaneous and receptive.
Whoff! Need a pint now-Kron please!
Hersh
January 15th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Kieran,
Nice article. Yes, it is frustrating when the client doesn’t hear to our objections answers. I sell training programs for an NGO and many a times, I have met clients who have already decided how much they are going to spend on a program and they just don’t listen to what we are saying! I don’t know what makes them believe that a program from NGO should cost less.
Wishes,
Avinash