Mastering Your Telephone Solicitations

April 22, 2009

Few (if any) sales professionals go to school for talking on the telephone, yet your telephone skills are a huge factor in your success.  Many real estate professionals have poor listening skills, even to the point of not remembering what was just said by the other person.  You should be spending half your time on the phone listening to the other person, so if you aren’t a good listener, it’s time you became one.  Here are some easy ways of improving your telephone listening skills:

1.    Prepare In Advance

Plan your calls before you make them.  Write down questions and anything you don’t want to forget mentioning during the call.  Doing this helps clear your mind and improves your listening ability because you won’t be searching your mind for what to say during the call.

2.    Concentrate

Eliminate any distractions and only pay attention to the person you’re speaking to.  Don’t doodle or re-arrange things on your desk.  They’ll hamper your ability to listen.  If someone in your environment distracts you, use a hand signal or close your eyes to let them know you’re busy and don’t want to be disturbed.

3.    Take Notes

Jot down the conversation’s key points.  They’ll help you remember them later.  But only write down the key points, and abbreviate when possible.  The more you write, the more you’ll be distracted from listening, so minimize your writing while still getting the key points down.  If you can touch type, do so as you’ll record information much quicker.

4.    Ask Questions

Ask lots of questions, especially if you’re unclear about something.  People love it when others take an interest in them, and asking lots of questions is a great way of doing this and building rapport.  Asking questions gets the other person more involved in the conversation and improves their listening ability too.

5.    Visualize The Speaker

If you can visualize what the speaker looks like, it’s much easier to get involved and interested in the conversation.

6.    Use Conversation Cues

Let the other person know you’re listening closely to them by occasionally saying “yes” or “I understand” or repeating part of what they just said.  This helps build rapport and encourages them to continue talking or elaborate on what they just said.

7.    Listen Between The Lines

Tone of voice is like body language: it tells you what the other person is feeling.  So listen as closely to what someone says as how they say it.

8.    Patience

Practice your listening ability in everyday social situations with family, friends and co-workers.  Listening is definitely a skill that can be developed.

Learn more about becoming a skilled sales communicator in my course Excelling In The Real Estate Profession.  This course has been approved by the Registrar, REBBA 2002 to qualify for 9 credits.

Filed under: Negotiating Best Practices,Networking Tips

Tags: closing, listening, objections, real estate education, speak, speaking, speech, telephone