✌️ You’re not listening

Active Listening is one of the most critical skills to have as a seller.

The problem is that most sellers suck at listening.

Let me explain.

Most listen to respond vs. listen to understand.

Ex: If you find yourself thinking about what to ask next, or respond while your prospect or customer is still talking - you’re “Active Listening” skills could use some work.

So let’s review a weekly exercise you can add that will help give you ninja-like listening skills.

How TEDx Talks Made Me a Better Seller

If you’re not familiar with TED or TEDx talks let me give you a brief overview.

TED = short for Technology, Entertainment & Design is an organization that puts on speaking events both globally and locally.

Their slogan?

“Ideas worth spreading”

Their speaking events can be summed up in one sentence:

“It’s about simplified, authentic storytelling”

Most talks are under 20 minutes, yet they’re some of the most captivating you’ll hear.

Here’s the most popular by view count with over 75M views across different platforms.

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Not only are they great for learning the concepts of better storytelling and presenting.

They also serve as the basis for this exercise.

TEDx Exercise

This exercise has really helped me better hone my listening skills - my hope is that maybe it’ll do the same for you.

1. Grab a pen & paper or iPad & stylus

2. Go to Youtube - search "TedX + [any subject that interests you]

3. Find one that looks interesting

4. Write the title and speaker on the page

5. Press play*

*The caveat is you won't be watching - only listening.

Listen for:

• Main topics

• Interesting ideas

• Repeated phrases

Write them down.

Use simple pictures. (not required)

Don't worry about ‘where’ and ‘what’ you write down.

There is no "right" or "wrong" way.

The focus is to listen and distill information.

Add this once a week.

And watch how it translates to your:

-Qualification calls

-Discovery calls

-Negotiations

Getting better at anything requires practice.

And I promise you’ll not only enjoy listening to TEDx talks - but you’re guaranteed to learn…

“Ideas worth sharing”

Here are a few from my recent sessions. (TEDtalks linked in Image)

Listening to Understand > Listening to Respond

That’s it for this week.

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