This is it.

The end of the “period” (you pick – day/week/month/quarter/year – how is your sales team measured). Moving deals through your sales pipeline takes on a greater sense of urgency. The stakes are higher, and the pressure is even higher.

So what will make the difference between “Your sales team had a great (aka met or exceeded expectations) period (you choose)” or a “They gave it their best shot (aka fell short of expectations)”?

The answer is everything. This is the time to cross “t’s” and dot “i’s.” Leave nothing out, and don’t assume anything. Make sure the “blocking and tackling” tasks are covered, small things like:

1. Have you completed and gotten buy-in from your buyer on your ROI calculations
2. Update and send the action items list (with target dates) to the buying team, etc.

Leverage these essentials with one of the “most important skills a salesperson can possess” (according to a 2012 survey of purchasing professionals) – Listening.

Yes, listening. Research into why salespeople are unsuccessful revealed that poor performance was linked to poor listening skills. Therefore, listening is essential to your performance and success as a professional salesperson.

If your selling situation employs the adaptive selling methodology, there is a requirement that you listen and “adapt” to what your buyer is “telling” you. The members of your buying team will give you the information you need to move a deal through your pipeline successfully. They will “tell” you want you need to know – the “tell” is communicated in several different ways, both spoken and unspoken.

For this high-stress period, we recommend that you take your selling team’s listening skills up a notch and employ not just active listening (when the listener assures the speaker they hear them by head nods and eye contact and seeks understanding by asking questions or repeating what was said for clarity) but active, empathetic listening or AEL. Empathy is the ability to see the world as others see it. AEL listening combines your active listening skills with empathy to achieve a higher form of listening. Sales performance researchers have found that AEL is superior to active listening because of the salesperson’s ability to understand the internal frame of the buyer better and relay the message that the salesperson is indeed concerned for the buyer’s well-being and understands beyond words. Leveraging the empathetic component in your listening skills requires you to understand the subtle emotions and feelings of the buyer and not limit your understanding to just the buyer’s literal or explicit message.

To “up your team’s listening skills” and help them successfully close the period (remember – your choice), add these elements to their active listening:

1. Sensing – involves hearing the speaker’s words and receiving implied messages via non-verbal signals. We usually refer to this as the “tone” of a conversation. Salespeople using AEL to detect the “tone” of a conversation are more aware of the mood or general feelings of the buyer. Please pay attention to your buyer as they speak. What is their attitude (stressed, relaxed, distracted, etc.)? What is speech pattern (rushed, even-paced, etc.)? Do they seem not to want to be as open with you as they have during previous meetings? Notice their body language and facial expressions. These are all “data points” you can use to sense the tone of the conversation. With this information, you will see things from your buyer’s perspective.
2. Processing – sometimes called “evaluating,” refers to the cognitive aspects of the listener; the listener is not only processing the literal message but has also considered the attending emotional cues that provide valuable information. After you have sensed the tone of the conversation, you can begin processing all of the information you have received – both verbal and non-verbal. This is where you decide the direction of the conversation. For example, you may have intended to discuss the closing date of your deal, but through your evaluation of the tone of the conversation, you may, for example, feel that your buyer is under some pressure. Rather than press forward with your agenda, you will want to confirm the “information” you have received from your buyer and possibly, alter your objective. This confirmation step is activated by responding to what you think your buyer is “telling” you.
3. Responding – refers to the signals listeners send back to the speaker that show they have heard the message and would like the speaker to continue. Responding is perhaps the most critical element of AEL as it indicates that the salesperson has been “listening” (taking in all of the information – verbal and non-verbal) and that the buyer has communicated on a deeper level than someone who has been listening on a marginal group. A response can be said, such as an acknowledgment, a probing question, or a non-verbal answer, such as making eye contact, nodding your head, or smiling. These responses encourage the buyer to continue speaking because they are assured they have a receptive audience in your sales team member, their salesperson.

Bottom line – When salespeople utilize AEL, they enable themselves to better understand their customers’ needs and priorities by considering their literal and emotional messages and, in the process, instill a sense of sincerity and genuine interest in the salesperson/buyer relations.