用车关注车辆“烧机油” 分享检测方法与保养

We’ve all had our “Oooh, squirrel” moments—you know, those times when we lose total focus on what we are doing to focus on something that is just a distraction. In one of those recent moments, I found myself thinking about extinct species: the woolly mammoth, the saber-toothed tiger, the dodo bird, Hollywood Video stores, Kodak, Tower Records, and salespeople who are good listeners.?

That last one bugs me a lot.?

I’m not sure that salespeople who don’t listen are extinct (I hope not), but they are rare. For the sake of humanity and all things good and to ensure the preservation of business as we know it, salespeople must learn to listen so that the script-spitting, deaf to my needs, automated AI-directed human robots who want to tell us why we need their product do not take over the earth.??

I might be a bit dramatic, but I don’t think so.?

If you want to be great at selling anything, learn to listen. It is a rare art form in business today. A rare commodity indeed. A March 2025 study by Samba Recovery verified that the average human attention span is only 8.25 seconds, less than the goldfish’s 9-second attention span. It went on to say that the increasing distractions on the internet, social media, and the environment influenced the average adult internet user’s attention span of 8.25 seconds. So, we must do our best to stay focused and demand that those across from us are focused.?

Two things must happen. One, as a consumer, when we’re out shopping and a talking head salesperson begins telling us all the advantages of buying this or that product with unfocused, scripted rhetoric, we should quietly, and simply with a smile, turn around and walk out. You don’t need this product from this store, sold to you by this guy who refuses to acknowledge your needs or presence.? Please, refuse to buy anything from someone uninterested in what you need. Heck, go home and sit in your pajamas and cruise Amazon. In many ways, why do you think that AMAZON exists? They’ve thrived partly because we don’t have to put up with talking-head yapper salespeople. We shop, we buy what we want, and if we don’t like our selection, we return it without hassle.?

But sometimes, I want advice on a product or service and how it fits my needs. I need someone I would consider a trusted advisor, rather than someone who can deliver a pitch.?

The second thing that needs to be done is that sales trainers, executives, entrepreneurs, and business owners must learn to listen and then teach those techniques to all their representatives. Learning to listen isn’t all that hard. To master the art of listening, your initial steps are to 1) ask a question, and 2) shut up and listen. 3) Write down what the prospect or customer tells you, 4) Verify with them that you heard what they said correctly, and 5) Restate their issue and share your solution.?

That’s pretty much it.?

I attribute my success as a Master Business Coach to having a vision, hard work, and learning from my many mentors. Some of the best advice I was given was over 50 years ago in one of my first sales jobs. I share his advice with every prospect or client weekly during sales training. My mentor said, “Dan, you’ll never be as successful as you potentially can be as long as you look at your prospects and clients as a commission check. You’ll always be in the top 1% of your field if you remember this. Your goal in sales is to UNDERSTAND your customers' needs, from THEIR point of view. Try to fully and completely understand and help them solve their needs. When you focus on what they’ve told you and you’ve given them solutions...the MONEY will always follow.”

Today, you can set yourself apart as a leader, a visionary, and an expert by becoming a world-class listener rather than a world-class teller. Prospects, clients, and, for that matter, friends and family do not want to hear that you think you are the smartest person in the room.?

They don’t care.?

All that everyone cares about is finding someone who will listen to them and solve their needs. All the product knowledge and skills in the world mean nothing if they don’t apply to your customers’ needs, whatever those might be.?

So, as I’ve said many times, just be curious, ask some questions, shut up, and listen. If you can learn to do that consistently, you’ll be amazed by what people will tell you. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say that people will inadvertently tell you how to sell them if you listen close enough.?

If the world's salespeople learn to do that, there might be some hope for the dodo bird.?