Getting People to Listen

The best way to get someone to listen to us is to listen to them first. When we listen to what they have to say we are giving of ourselves and this is likely to be responded to with reciprocal listening. One of the big secrets is to never wait to talk but instead actively listen. Actively listening is the art of taking notes and being engaged with the person on the other end of the phone.

We can communicate that we are actively listening by taking notes and letting the other person know that we are taking notes, by apologizing for asking them to repeat something that they have said.

This tells the speaker/potential client that we are actively listening and we are not waiting for them to stop so that we can start talking.

We are all Americans and we feel like we need to talk to get things done, but often the opposite is true and we need to be quiet so that things can get done. Being quiet and paying attention to the other person is a lost art in the world of communication. Where everything that anyone is thinking can appear on the web we are in a hail storm of noise and the act of listening has gotten lost by a lot of people. We need to realize this and use it to our advantage by listening patiently and responding to the person after they have finished what they had to say. Reacting or responding to what they said can get us to the end results faster than cutting them off and trying to force the conversation down the path that we wanted in the first place.

It works, but we have to try it consciously in order to measure the results. If we rely on our gut instinct we will not feel the difference and we will not be able to measure our success. By making a note to ourselves before we lift up the phone we can remind ourselves of this need to listen and wait and respond accordingly. As creatures of habit we will need to engage differently and be aware of it while we are doing it.