According to the University of Missouri, 45% of communication is listening, and yet the average person remembers only half to a quarter of the information they hear. Whether you’re in a classroom, a business setting, or a relationship, failing to hear 75% what’s said to you is a recipe for disaster.
After a recent a GoldMine sale, my customer sent me and GoldMine’s general manager a thank you email. My customer made this remark about their experience with me. Richard said:
“Bob did something I have never, ever seen a CRM consultant or sales rep do. He listened. Like really listened. Then he showed me how he captures a summary of the conversation in GoldMine, and it was exactly what I was saying and thinking about what CRM challenges I have been facing. Again, I was thinking that I need to be doing that, every time, every meeting, every office hour. It was a masterclass in Customer Relationship Management.”
Never underestimate the power of listening. Listening with your full attention and taking notes is an act of caring which leads to understanding. Understanding that is applied toward improving the situation for the party that is speaking, builds trust.
GoldMine CRM is a tool for “Active Listening.” With “active listening” one makes a conscious effort to hear, understand, and retain information that’s being relayed to you. GoldMine has features that are designed to assist your active listening including but NOT limited to:
- Entering relevant qualifying facts into fields
- Capturing key points in notes
- Fulfilling requests for information with emails that address your prospects questions and interests
- Documenting responses to your questions (The best salespeople ask the best questions.)
- Scheduling timely follow-up
- Referencing details in future communications
Information stored in GoldMine CRM is automatically shared with your workgroup of GoldMine users. In the process, there is potentially a compound benefit of listening because what one GoldMine user enters can be used by another GoldMine user.
Ultimately, your results with GoldMine are only going to be as good as your users are at applying it. I firmly believe that a conscious awareness of the importance of active listening, coupled with the sincere desire to practice it will lead to better usage of GoldMine. That is the most important part of the impression I made on Richard. He knows that he “needs to be doing that, every time, every meeting, every office hour” . . . and now he can be doing that with GoldMine CRM.
Read more . . . 5 Ways to Use Your CRM Software to Build Trust
