Listening and Questioning for Influence: Dialogue-Based Approach to Sales

Sales processes and formulaic influence strategies can only get you so far. If you want to increase your sales and influence effectiveness, it is essential that you think critically, listen, question, and comment in ways that invite others to see you as a partner in their success. 

This one-day course builds on the concepts presented in the Communication and Influence course. It supports development of dialogue-based selling skills. The course concentrates on the types of conversation challenges encountered when you stop focusing on the “steps of the sales call” and start focusing on helping customers critically evaluate how they will leverage your products in ways that are meaningful to their bottom-line. 

The ideas and models presented are based on the Four-Part Process of Reflective Critical Thinking, which suggests that we make decisions based on relevance, credence, consequences, and value. The course content addresses:

1. How / why individuals make decisions
2. How to listen and question in a manner that invites customers to discover product benefits for themselves
3. How to gain agreement to committed action in the face of objections / resistance

This course will include large group discussion, role-plays, and individual coaching. Each participant is asked to bring a “mock” product, initiative, or idea for use in applying the skills and tactics taught during the course. 

Participants Learn To:

• Recognize the difference between presentation and dialogue, and demonstrate when to use them
• Build rapport quickly by questioning and listening in ways that foster dialogue
• Gain buy-in through conversational engagement
• Avoid asking leading questions with obvious or “yes-biased” answers
• Listen and question according to the triggers of influence (Relevance, Credence, Implications, Value)
• Ask for and gain committed action