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It’s Only Common Sense: Eight Great Tips to Teach a New Salesperson—Listen!

Today, all of us are working diligently on getting more young people involved in our industry. And many of those people are going to be involved in sales. These young people are going to need the right training to make sure that they become effective, successful salespeople. To help you with developing that training, here are eight great tips to teach a new salesperson:

1. Listen more than you talk. Your customer has no interest in who founded or built the company. They are only interested in what your company can do for their company.
2. Listen when your customers tell you about their needs, products, business, and market. That is what they care about, and if they tell you about these things, it is your job as a salesperson to sit quietly, listen, and ask cogent questions when the right time comes.
3. Listen when your customer tells you what they expect from their vendors because what they are really doing is describing what it takes to become one of their suppliers. Consider their words to be clues to a successful relationship with their company.
4. Listen when the customers tell you about problems they have had with other people’s products. This will let you know what to watch out for. Also, listen to what is important to them and what they need from their vendors to help them create perfect end products.
5. Listen when your customer talks about their company, what market they are in, and what it takes to be successful in that market. The more you can listen to what it takes for their company to be successful in its marketplace, the more you will learn about what you must do to help them to be successful.
6. Listen when there is a problem with your product. Do not interrupt or make excuses; listen to the whole story. Absorb all of the details of the problem. Gather as much information you can, so that you will be able to pass on accurate information to your company. Then, you can ensure that the problem is never repeated. When you have all the facts right, go back to your customer and explain to them what happened and why it will never happen again.
7. Listen when your customer tells you about their future plans. This is especially important when they start talking about new trends, markets, and products. They are laying out the path for how you are going to service them today and into the future, which could be the most valuable information they ever tell you.
8. Listen when the customer talks about the state of their business, whether it is doing well or not. You must be well aware of everything going on with your customer. The larger the customer, the more important this information will be. Imagine if one of your large customers tells you that they are going to be moving their business to a contract manufacturer; the sooner you know that (and which one they will be using), the better. That is a great time to ask for a recommendation to let you have a crack at the business.

In the spirit of under-promising and over-delivering, here is a ninth tip for your new salespeople to learn:

• 9. Listen when the customers give you feedback on how you and your company are doing. Again, don’t argue or even agree too emphatically. Whether the news is good or bad, listen to what the customer has to say.

And there you have it, nine great tips that every new salesperson (or all salespeople for that matter) should learn and apply at all times. To review, these tips are: Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, and listen.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.