Salesperson Communication

Communication is where all trust and relationships begin. Communicating with customers should be 80% listening and 20% asking questions. Trust is earned in listening and not in talking.

Psychologists say that 93% of what we communicate to other people is non-verbal. A sales person can start his meeting off by telling his customer a few things without uttering a word. Carrying a big shoulder bag / laptop to the customer's place will frighten him. The less the salesperson brings with him is better. The salesperson whenever possible can follow the following communication techniques:-

Closing Mouth:- Seems overly simplistic? But the salesperson cannot learn anything while he is talking. He has to learn to use silence in a conversation and leave more space in his conversation by letting his customer to come up with more detail or additional information.


Looking & Smiling at Customers:- Having eye contact is vital in good communication and earning trust. If you are a salesperson, just let your eyes roam around your customer's face and come back to their eyes every few seconds. Make sure that both your mouth and your eyes are smiling. A real smile involves your eyes too.

While your customer is talking, try to block everyting else out your mind. Look at them and listen with your eyes as intently as you can. Your customer will notice the difference and so will you.


Moving Head a Little:- Salesperson should let his customer talking by nodding a little as the conversation goes along, but should not overdo it. He might also want to get his eyebrows involved a little on the really interesting bits.

Even when the customer is doing the talking, and a salesperson's mouth is closed, he still has 93% of his capacity to communicate available which he can use.          

Becoming a Great Conversationist:- Great conversationist knows how to get people talking and keep them talking, use a number of verbal sounds and certain words to encourage often to continue. When customer takes a breathe, salesperson can encourage them to help talking by mastering the use of great conversatinaist's words like Hmmmm, Oh, Really, Unbelievable, Amazing, Seriously etc.

Anybody can practice using these words. And the salesperson can often prompt his customer to continue talking by repeating the last few words, using by right intonation

Asking Clarifying Questions:- To understanding motive, urgency, consequence and effect, salesperson can ask right questions. If you are a salesperson and cannot think of any right question, the best question to ask is "Why do you say that, Albert?" (note, question followed by name to make it non-personal to get customer's personal opinions and views). Salesperson can use this question a few times over the next few days to make himself comfortable with it.

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