Three critical skills to make your client feel understood
You should never go into a meeting without knowing what you want to get out of that meeting. However, how you communicate to your clients that you’re taking their needs and desires into account goes way beyond your presented material.
Here’s three key communication skills to develop that will improve your client relationships.
Active listening
You wouldn’t walk into a meeting with a set of headphones on. Yet many are doing almost exactly that when attending meetings because they don’t actively listen to what their clients are saying. And clients do notice.
Active listening involves a set of skills that covers not only fact gathering, but also emotional and body language cues, key phrase checking and more. Actively working to change the way you listen to your clients, and showing how well you are hearing them, is key to making them feel understood.
As a task, active listening comes easily to some but can also be developed through practice for greater efficacy. We have a course called Active Listening in the Suncorp Learning Campus that provides a simple way to get started or to hone your existing skillset.
Pivoting towards an open attitude
All too often, we ‘close off’ in meetings by focusing only on the matter at hand. It can mean that questions could have too narrow a target, missing the chance to learn more about what the client really needs, as well as the bigger picture.
Open-ended queries, phrased correctly, can enable a deeper relationship with a client. They can also make it faster to clarify key needs, or to resolve any ongoing disputes. Asking the right questions encourages clearer communication and gives space for a client to clarify and explain their immediate priorities and longer-term needs.
The quick course Retail Selling Skills - The Power of Questions in the Suncorp Learning Campus can open up a whole range of techniques to ensure a client feels they’re being understood all the time.
Train your body to speak as clearly as you do
As you’ll find out in the course Listening Mistakes Sales People Make, most sales people maintain eye contact while talking to a client, but many then tend to look away when they’re simply listening.
Making your client feel understood involves a two-way dialogue, but this isn’t just in your choice of spoken words.
Develop key skills – such as an open, inviting body posture, maintaining eye contact and keeping distractions at bay while meeting your client – and you’ll walk away from meetings with better results.
Conversely, looking away, being frequently distracted or making it clear you’re not engaged with what you’re saying are all non-verbal ways of turning a client off faster than anything you say ever could.
Improve your client relationship skills with these CPD accredited courses on the Suncorp Learning Campus.
- Active Listening
Find out what kind of listener you are, and how you can hone your listening skills and approach.
- Now You're Talking! Communicating in a Diverse World
Clients may come from diverse backgrounds, so understanding their assumptions and thinking is critical in making communication breakthroughs.
- Effective Communication
Go beyond presenting a slide and work towards a presentation that will fully engage your client and make it clear you can work together to meet your goals.
- Listening Mistakes Sales People Make
Quickly and easily pick up on where your pitches go wrong when taking in what a client has to say.
- Retail Selling Skills - The Power of QuestionsQuestions are a powerful tool for building rapport with your clients, as well as allowing them to feel like they’re always being listened to.
