How Often Do You Reach The 3rd Level of Listening?

Active Listening was instilled in me as cubrep. Yet limited in scope back then, basically summarised as 'say what they just said back to them, and check you heard right'.

Well, it's a start.

Not many reps I met during the mid-90s had heard the term. So I'd be unsurprised if even fewer have today encountered its latest slant; Deep Listening.

I recommend we familiarise ourselves with its three levels as a path to greater selling.

Also noting the writer by whom I discovered it observing; "it’s amazing what people share when you shut up for a little longer".

The three tiers being when listening; to respond, for facts & for experience.

Listening to respond is the entry-level where common ground may have been spotted, so a tale of our own around it takes over.

Listening for facts often shows initial promise, with clarifying questions asked, yet can quickly veer into the derailing unwelcome style of an interrogation.

Listening for experience uncovers motivations, values and emotions. This is the mastery to which we ought aspire.

It has a touch of the psychographic AIOs about it. Going deeper into the underlying meanings that drive someone.

As examples, I read these sample pair of template questions and a statement that work well.

“What was that like?"
"What does that mean for you?”
“You seem to value [such-and-such].”

There's a healthy check for any talk with a prospect through this.

Which also prompts me to mention that auto-transcription, AI or otherwise, is not an answer here.

Beyond the suspicion that buyers increasingly do not submit to having conversations recorded. Not solely for reasons of precious IP either. But also over doubts it helps any seller genuinely perform better for all concerned as a result.

My graphic up-top gives hint to tracking this.

A timeline of a conversation, starting with the 'seller'. Ending with the 'yes' of the buyer.

The length of each 'bar' equates to speaking duration. Recurring colour following indicates a question being asked.

As a guide, one of the elements I helped salespeople with a lot during Peak Zoom involved creating and tracking engagement.

I myself would have a different coloured pen handy. Every single time a question was asked 'us', it'd be duly jotted.

At that time, I considered best-practice to be following up the video call including sending the specific questions and answers pulled out separately.

A discipline that still holds great weight.

And a building block for what deep listening unlocks.

You can make three columns on a page and note each in turn.

Ensuring you truly join the dots.

What 'responds' did you do? Collected which 'facts'? And found what 'experiences'?

To be prepared to write them down not only makes you way more likely to reach and enjoy that top level, but also earn you greater rights to proceed and win.