Guest Post: Lulu Chen

Lulu is one of Chris' Summer 2010 Professional Speaking students. Here she writes about real-world oral communication.

‘We have satellite offices all around the world, and each office only comprises a few people. While we want to support staffs’ basic IT needs, we can’t justify spending too much money on a few people in each site. How can you help us? ‘

‘Well, our product is the most comprehensive one in the industry now, it assemblies all the features of similar products and it is ranked number 1 in the Gartner Magic Quadrant!’

I’ve been hearing a lot of sales talks in my work, and the above conversation happens regularly. It is funny. More than 70% of business proposals for IT don’t meet the requirements in full. While there’s so much pressure on the sales people to close deals with us, they usually don’t listen to our specific requirements and our concerns. Instead, they go on and on with their prepared sales pitch. Normally these people don’t get the deal with us at the end.

Sales is an art that needs persuasion, negotiation and intimacy in relationship. But most importantly, it takes good listening skills and good knowledge for the sales person to be flexible and relax enough to swing the conversation.

For those good sales people I meet, they start the presentation by asking our requirements and concerns. They listen for the ideas and interpret between the lines. After they get the idea, they respond directly to our requirements or concerns – accurately, no zigzag, no avoidance. The prepared slides would just serve as an aid whenever the speaker needed. This is how typically good sales people capture our hearts. We trust that this is the guy we can speak with – responsive, sharp and knowledgeable. Good knowledge plays a part in the sales process, and more important is a good listening attitude.

The good listening attitude is powerful in any oral communication, be it a negotiation, a persuasion, or just a simple chit chat. Listening not only makes the other party (who is speaking) feel better, it also make ourselves look significantly smarter if we respond exactly with what the other one want to know; and surprisingly, they do tell us what they want to know if we listen carefully.