Listening and It's Effects On Sales Performance

            Listening and it's Profound Effect on Sales Performance.
             I am senior at Western Michigan University studying interpersonal communication, and I have minor in Psychology. When I graduate I will be an employee at Pfizer Corporation. I will be working as a health care.
             representative, and my career advancement will depend solely on my selling abilities. I will be selling Pharmaceuticals to doctors in the metro Detroit area. After conducting some research I learned the importance of listening skills and it's effects on sale performance. According to www.wanerdevelopment.com, "Listening continues to be identified as the most important selling skill in today's healthcare environment." In my paper I will prove why listening is so important to sales performance. I will outline three different stages of listening. I then will explain each one in detail. Some of the topics I will discuss are why we listen the way we do, how to recognize signs, and finally tips on how you can break your old listening habits. .
             According to www.ridge.com/lssp.htm, much of a salesperson's success depends on his or her ability to listen. Poor listening skills can result in missed opportunities, alienated prospects, and loss of profits. Poor listening skills can cost American business's billions of dollars, and it is one of the primary causes of a salesperson failure (Ramsey, Rosemary; Sohi, Ravipreet). In order to be a top producing salesperson you need to have superior listening skills. Good listening skills show commitment, caring, interest, respect, and builds rapport with your clients (www.selfgrowth.com). All of these listening skills are essential to closing a sale.
             According to Listening Skills for Sales Professionals sixty percent of a salesperson's communication should consist of listening. Salespeople tend to do more talking than listening. According to www.sales-alliance.com, in a typical sixty-minute sales call, a salesperson spends forty minutes talking about products or services, nine minutes asking questions, and eleven minutes letting the customer speak.