One of the skills veterinary team members possess is the ability to listen to their animal patients. They do it with their ears, their eyes, hands and even noses. These senses are critical to identifying both health and illness in critters. But when that attention is turned to an animal owner, the senses often turn off. Salespeople have similar problems and so do personnel at the front desk or cash register.
Elizabeth Hilla writes from the sales perspective about the importance of owning what you don’t know and asking questions. By doing so, you can turn your own areas of ignorance into potential advantages, she says.
Source: Reperotoire, February 2020. Link. It’s a good thing that people don’t like know-it-alls, because we as salespeople definitely don’t know it all. However, by turning our ignorance into curiosity about the customer and his or her needs, we can make it an asset in our sales efforts.
INSIGHTS: Some previous posts came to mind while reading Hilla’s experience. They include:
- The wisdom is in the questions, AHD, January 9, 2018. Link.
- Listening boosts compliance and loyalty, AHD, April 9, 2019. Link.
- Practicing narrative medicine; diagnostic listening, AHD, September 24, 2019. Link.
We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” – Epicticus