December 22, 2022

A Conversation with Oscar Trimboli

47 minutes

Oscar Trimboli is the author of Deep Listening and he teaches that listening is the requirement to understand a prospect's needs and gives value to their words and beliefs. He digs into the differences between hearing and listening and shares research that shows that up to 55% of a seller's day is spent listening.

A good seller will listen for what is not being said and ask questions that lead the prospect to say what they really need. Oscar also discusses hearing versus listening and the 5 levels of listening, as well as the power of pausing in a conversation to allow the prospect or buyer to fill in the gaps.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

Ask questions about what's not being said - Oscar: "People who listen okay in a selling situation are listening to get the sale and beat the competition, but great sellers and great listeners are listening for the business case and listening for the customer's problem. I think there's a listening that's a little bit more systematic in sellers that are orientated around the business case that the customer has to sell internally."

"And they do a really good job of listening, yes, there'll be some objections around functional fit or the pricing or the terms and conditions or implementation time schedules or whatever they may be, but I think really good sellers ask questions like who's involved in the approval process, what do they care about, how long does this take?"

Make recommendations because there is value in your network - Oscar: "Sometimes sellers don't realize their real value is the network of connections they can make to help whoever's in front of you solve some bigger problems that you can't with what you sell. So that way, you build trust and you're trusted in a way that somebody just selling a product won't ever be."

Practice making thoughtful pauses in a conversation - Oscar: "A lot of people ask me how do I increase my credibility with executives that are completely mismatched, they might be 3 or 4 decades down in their career path. Just pause. You're not getting paid for the speed of the answer, and they're not getting paid for the speed of the answer, you're being paid for the quality of the conversation. And the quality of the conversation will improve if you pause because, I guarantee you, they're not used to it and they will fill the gap for you."

Find out more about Oscar and learn where your listening barriers are below:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oscartrimboli/

Website: https://listeningquiz.com/