Selling and the Ability to Communicate

Effective communication depends on:

•	Understanding the basic components of communication and how to apply them.
•	Being comfortable, extroverted and fully attentive with people.
•	Making sure that your communication is received and understood.
•	Excellent listening skills, and
•	Maintaining control of the conversation.

Underlying selling skill is the ability to communicate. By fully understanding and applying the basics of communication, you'll more successfully apply selling techniques.

Understanding and Applying the Basics of Communication

Agreement: Relationships are built on what people have in common and what they agree upon. Doing those things that people are in agreement with improves communication. When communicating with prospective buyers, quickly gain an understanding of their points of view. Find out where they are from, why they might be interested in your product or service and maybe who they work for. Uncover something you have in common and express it to them. The more you do this, the easier it will be to create agreement and trust. Good salespeople spend most of their time asking questions and listening carefully to their prospects' responses rather than dominating the conversation. By asking questions and creating agreements with your prospects, you will build trust and cause them to like you.

Attraction: People are less willing to speak to someone they don't like and are rarely, if ever, persuaded to do something by someone they don't like. Therefore, success in selling is directly dependent on being able to get people to like you. You achieve this by:

•	Creating common agreements.
•	Honestly liking the person you're speaking to.
•	Listening carefully with interest to what they have to say.
•	Making the person you're talking to feel important.
•	Generating understanding.

Understanding: Understanding is synonymous with communication. Communication does not exist without understanding and understanding does not exist without communication. You raise a person's level of understanding by:

•	Establishing common agreements.
•	Raising affinity.
•	Demonstrating that you understand with a clear acknowledgement
•	Making sure what you said has been heard and grasped.

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