Flexibility in business begins with listening–really listening–to your customers so you can match their desires with your capabilities while also keeping your own business goals in mind. . “It’s not about your product. It’s about the consumer, and your job is to keep your product as interesting as possible to the consumer.”
Jim Reynolds, the CEO of Loop Capital, a boutique bank based in Chicago, really drove this point years ago. When Reynolds first started out in the sales training program at IBM, one of the biggest things he learned was to make sure you listen to your customer.
“Most people will tell you what they want,” Reynolds says. “All you have to do is pay attention and listen to it. Then, you give them exactly what they asked for. The guys who made the big sales were never the ones who walked in with flashy suits and big mouths–it was always the ones who shut up and listened who made the big sales.”
So how do you listen well? I find these three things go a long way in connecting with people:
1. Mirror people’s words. It sounds counterintuitive, because repeating other people’s words back to them makes it seem as if you’re not paying attention to them.
2. Ask questions. How many conversations have you been in where someone says something completely nonsensical and you just let it pass because it’s actually more work to make them explain their point than to let him or her talk on. Next time, make a point to stop the conversation and ask about the point of confusion. It will not only create a more dynamic connection, it will also signal to the person that you’re actually listening. Chances are, when you’re stuck with someone who’s talking endlessly, even he or she knows you’re not completely paying attention.
3. Stop looking around the room. One of the things about interviews is the intensity of it–two people are literally staring at each other for five minutes straight talking, sometimes tensely. The problem is, in real life, nobody talks to each other that way. Most of us are half engaged in our conversations, thinking about what we want to eat, our dinner plans, or the work on our desk. Stop looking around the room physically or looking around the room in your brain. Five minutes spent fully engaging with one person as if he or she is the only thing in the room at the moment is worth 10 times more than 15 minutes half-heartedly tittering on about the dullest subjects.
Try these three techniques and soon you might find your business on the upswing.