Strong selling skills begin with good ears; how else will you hear buyer needs, wants, and objections?

Most experts agree there are no shortcuts to improving your listening competency. Mostly, they argue, it’s a decision. The pundits will bellow, "…just focus harder.". Or, "…pay attention and maintain good eye contact".

Those so-called experts aren’t sellers. Unlike you, they don’t deal with the constant noise and interruptions attacking you daily. There is good news if you want to be a better listener because tangible solutions can be mastered to help immediately. But yes, the experts aren’t wrong either: choose to focus on and improve your listening.

A study by the University of Missouri states people only remember about 50% of what they hear. Yikes! (Does that mean you should give buyers 100% more so they’ll double what they remember? (Umm, no.)

More importantly, a Gong study posits the most successful sales reps speak for only 43% of the sales conversation. That sounds about right when you think of how your customer meetings go.

Don’t be discouraged if you think you speak at least 44% of the time in your customer meetings. This is why you’re here working on your game! You know that focus and doing the DO create the good habits you want. Listening is one of the hardest skills to master because you’re engulfed in emails, manager directives, buyer asks, and rinse/repeat. It’s hard to go slow when everything around you is fast.

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 is the listening killer. 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!

If you’ve made your way to DO, you’ve accomplished half of the assignment already, as you’re committing to improving your listening skills. That’s step one.

Next, develop a mechanism you can regularly use that helps you enter a heightened and focused state during meetings. Today, create a word you can use as a trigger, like how mantras are used in meditation. Repeating your trigger word in your head will return you to an engaged state.

Choose a trigger word like "focus" or something as banal as "listen." Whatever word you choose, make it visible in your workspace by posting it strategically. Write it down in your notebook so you can see it in meetings and be reminded to do it!

Today, use your trigger word so much that you form a habit.

Mostly, good listening starts with a decision…but that won’t stop the distractions from setting up camp in your inner ear. The key to listening is to program your trigger word to pop into your head when you feel you’re fading in an interaction. Limiting the fade is the goal here…it’s not possible to stay engaged and attentive through 100% of an interaction with a customer or even in an internal meeting. But you will win this war if your trigger word can just show up when needed.

First, confirm that you have settled on an appropriate trigger word for you. A trigger word could be as simple as "FOCUS," "LISTEN," or "Attennnnn-SHUN!". Whatever floats your boat.

Next, write it down everywhere! Write it down on a Post-it note stuck to your laptop, write it in your notebook atop every page, write it down in big letters on a piece of paper that floats around on your desk, and write it down on anything that you will see.

Do not worry about others asking about this word you’ve become infatuated with…be proud when explaining why the trigger word is omnipresent. It aligns with your obsession to be a better seller, work peer, sibling, partner, or whatever role you play. You’ll be shocked at how fast you can train that trigger word to start working for you!