TO UNDERSTAND, ONE MUST KNOW HOW TO LISTEN!

When I am at a business networking event, I hear a lot of emphasis on the importance of listening well. Yet I often get the sense that many people are not doing it as well as they need to. Sometimes this is due to the listener not being "present" during the conversation (as I too-often hear from my lovely wife) but it is often a result of not knowing how to listen carefully to extract the full meaning of what is being said. This has real risks.

For example, a salesperson may all too quickly accept what is being asked for by a customer and immediately offer a solution which may turn out not to be relevant to the customer's real need. Kate Reilly, a highly successful corporate sales trainer now in executive sales herself, recommends "re-framing" what the speaker is saying or asking for by repeating the comment or question in his or her own words and asking if (s)he has accurately heard and understood what is needed.

Kate exemplifies this with a simple story about a homemaker whose basement is being flooded with water and calls the local hardware store for help. Almost before she can finish her cry for assistance, the store owner says he has a bucket and a mop on hand for only $9.99. However, this is a solution that wont help much because there are six inches of water on the floor and a mop and bucket wont do the trick. Instead of originally offering up his solution, the store owner should have probed first by re-framing the question: "So you have water in your basement?" and listened to her response to understand fully the customer's situation, i.e. she has 6 inches of water on the floor. At that point he would have been able to offer a more relevant and useful suggestion, such as a sump pump. wet-vac, etc.

The moral of the story for sales people? Be sure to listen carefully to hear and understand real needs before suggesting solutions.

IS PAID ADVERTISING BECOMING IRRELEVANT OR IS THERE A DIFFERENT BENEFIT FROM ONLINE CHATTER?

In a recent, well-written blog, Kristen Zhivago - whose commentaries I read and respect - raised the interesting hypothesis that shoppers write so many reviews and articles on the Internet about products and services they have purchased, that the paid advertising aimed at influencing them is becoming irrelevant. She observes that, in effect, the experience of an unbiased purchaser is often more effective than a paid ad or commercial and by sharing experiences online, these stories obviate the value of advertising which is paid for.

Her argument has value but fails to recognize that the message being delivered by the advertiser is largely (albeit not exclusively) designed to promote first-time sales and is likely to be premised on research which enables an advance understanding of the attitudes and emotions of the prospective purchaser about the proposed purchase. While the buyer's experience may have been unsatisfactory and preclude a second purchase, the initial experience being discussed online may actually have been stimulated by the paid advertising in the first place.

So, while a bad experience may prevent a repeat purchase, what it may also contribute to -if there is enough consumer dissatisfaction -is forcing the manufacturer to make product improvements which he can then advertise to stimulate a second or new purchase. The conclusion? Paid advertising based on deep understanding of the consumer through research and experience will be hard to cast aside even in this Internet economy!