Listening to Connect: The Secret to Closing More Sales

In beauty sales, listening to your customers is the most important action you can take. Our entire lives we’ve been trained to make conversations about ourselves. Something such as “You’re from Wyoming? Yea I went there a few years ago!” Does this type of conversation sound familiar to you? What if instead we learned how to communicate in a way that makes the other person feel heard, listened to, understood, and special? There is a famous saying that says people don’t remember exactly what you say – they remember how you made them feel. Sales is all about conversation, so why in the world would we not do our absolute best to listen and make them feel heard. “You’re from Wyoming? That’s amazing. What are some of your favorite things about being from there?” … Do you see and feel the difference in the 2?

Introduction: Why Listening Is a Sales Superpower

Everywhere you go in person or online there’s someone or some brand attempting to sell you a product. And majority of the time it’s done in a manner that is all about the features and how great the product is designed as opposed to connecting with the storyline going on in the customer’s mind. As consumers, that does very little to give us a warm and fuzzy internal feeling because it has little to do with us. Listening and understanding allows us sales reps to learn exactly what our prospects are thinking and feeling. Because subconsciously they are thinking to themselves, “What’s in this for me? What am I going to get out of it? How will it improve my life?” Listening allows us to uncover the truth behind what they want most so we can tailor and provide the perfect solution for their needs, wants, and desires.

The Difference Between Listening to Respond vs. Understand

Listening to respond is just that. As the other party speaks, rather than fully embracing the moment you allow your mind to jump ahead by thinking about what you will say next. Doing this will cause you to miss the connection and lose out on understanding valuable information. Ultimately it prevents you from being able to fully address their concerns.

Listening to understand is all about giving them your full attention so you can empathetically process their words. Put your phone away, face them with open body language, look into their eyes, and quiet your mind. This goes for video meetings and phone call as well. The more you do this, the better you will get at responding in a way that resonates and builds trust with your customer.

• Pro Sales Tip: Pause briefly before responding to fully process what they’ve said. Allow brief moments of silence to creep into the conversation. Check out my free guide on the importance of understanding Sales Psychology here.

Techniques for Active Listening in Sales

• Maintain good eye contact whether in-person or virtually so you are fully engaged.
• Use verbal cues like “I see,” “That makes sense,” or “Tell me more” to encourage them to continue to open up and talk.
• Paraphrase and mirror back to them what they’ve said to confirm your understanding. An example of this is “So, what I’m hearing is…”
• Ask open-ended questions and avoid yes/no questions as best you can to dive deeper into their needs.
• Take really great notes to reference specific details later on in the conversation.

How Empathy Builds Trust with Customers

When it comes to listening to our customers in our beauty sales business, we genuinely want to understand. And we want to be able to put ourselves in their shoes so we can see the issue from their perspective. Doing so allows us to communicate the solution in a way that psychologically places us on the same side of the table as them and not against them. Our goal is to validate their concerns as we work to find the right solution. Approaching your prospects with this mentality will foster a genuine connection ultimately making them feel valued!

Practical Tips to Apply in Your Sales Conversations

• Start by asking about their goals or challenges.
  • Example: “What’s the biggest challenge you’re currently facing with with your makeup routine?”

• Fight the temptation to use the word ‘I’ and instead use ‘You and Your’ as much as possible.
• Pause during the conversation. Silence prompts people to open up further. You’ll be amazed out how well this works.
• Always let someone finish their thought and point. Don’t interrupt, even if you feel excited to respond.
• Pay very close attention to your prospect’s tone and body language. Understanding non verbal communication is huge for getting better at closing your sales calls.

Better Listening, Bigger Impact

Active listening in your beauty sales will change the game for you. In fact it can change your entire life. It did mine. Once I finally started to understand how to communicate with others, I found myself talking less and closing more deals. It’s a skill and a mindset that time awareness and practice. Our goals as sales representatives should always be to help the person in front of us, and the only way we can truly do that is by getting to know them. Start practicing active listening in your every day life today. Try it with your spouse, kids, friends, or strangers throughout the day. You will be amazed.

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