Social Listening - Sonar for Salespeople

I love WWII submarine movies. I especially love the thrill of the hunt and the ping of the sonar. The closer you get to the target, the louder and more rapid the pingbacks become. When your pings and their pings meld as one, you are right on top of them. Directional sonar will even identify where to look for them.

The two critical social listening skills

Everybody loves to talk about the great skills that are necessary in sales. I’m only going to share what I think are the two most important ones that are related to listening …[Tweet “Social listening is like sonar for salespeople!”]

Clarify – Did you really hear (or understand) the question, the objection, or the discussion? It’s always good practice to clarify … “I’m not sure if I totally understood your (question, comment, objection). Could you please clarify that for me?” or “Was your question …. ?”

Confirm – Confirming that your answer made sense to the recipient, and that you have even addressed the right question with the appropriate and complete answer, is always recommended! “Did I answer your question completely or did I miss anything?”

If you can do these two things right, you will automatically separate yourself from at least the lion’s share of your competitors and your customers will love you for it!

Two eyes, two ears, one mouth

You are the way you are with good reason and we can apply these characteristics to the “rules of social media engagement.” The first rule of any conversation is to listen, then to determine if you have anything of value to contribute and, finally, only at the appropriate place and time … you jump in (engage). If you are not adept at these three steps or, if you have nothing pertinent to add to the conversation to begin with, you move on.

Always remember that listening is both proactive and reactive. This means that you must actively focus on the task at hand (turn off your stinkin’ smartphone) which happens to be … listening. Read on at Maximize Social Business …

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!