2/7/2025-“Umm, could you repeat that?”

If you’re working on listening better in your pitch meetings, try repeating this mantra before the meeting starts to focus your attention: "My mind is open, and my ears are too."

Data from Gong shows that the most successful sales reps speak for 43% of the sales conversation.

Regardless of your listening percentage, there’s always room for better listening with your customers.

It’s obvious why listening is so hard, what’s not so obvious is how to improve. (Yes, it is hard to slow down and listen when everything around you is going so fast. …and???)

Gong data tells us all we need to know about successful selling: get the buyer talking.

Today, create a word you’ll use as a trigger to recenter yourself when your attention drifts during interactions.

Choose a word like "focus" or something as banal as "listen," and whisper it inside your brain as needed.

Post your word everywhere in your workspace to see the visual cue that reminds you to turn off the noise and turn on your brain.

Preparing good questions for your customer meetings helps, too; you’ll listen better when you ask solid questions.

A study by the University of Missouri states people only remember about 50% of what they hear. Yikes!

Don’t be discouraged if you think you speak much more than what the Gong stats suggest is a best practice. This is why you’re here working on your game! You know that focus and doing the DO create the good habits you want.

The Gong stat tells us all we need to know about successful selling: let the buyer do the talking. Shoot for getting them to talk at least 57% of the time.

That means you must create space for the buyer; you need to tamp your excitement and eagerness that often speed you up in meetings. Pressure and the speed of business are listening killers.

On the one hand, you love the speed of your role, but you must learn to put a fence around it if you want to be a good listener! Becoming a better listener requires dedication and discipline…luckily, you got those mastered!

Author, speaker, and thinker Simon Sinek offers a killer line about listening in this video.

Simon says (ha) that the classic play-back of repeating what someone says is a technique that might not get the job done these days; the key to active listening is making your audience feel heard.

Probably! You’re selling trust more than anything.