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The Art of Listening

By: Therese Mageau

10/1/2008

In my first editor's note for this magazine, I confessed that I was not a salesperson by temperament or training. But now that I have a few issues under my belt, I'm not so sure.

My first career, when I was right out of college, was in social services and I worked with youth and families in crisis. This was in the late seventies and the psychologist Carl Rogers was a dominant voice in therapy and counseling.

Rogers pioneered the humanistic or "person-centered" approach to psychotherapy. Without going into the details of his work, what it meant for those of us in the counselor's chair is that we were taught a whole new way to listen.

People, especially those in crisis, need to feel they are being heard. It was the counselor's role, we learned, to listen carefully and reflect back to our clients what we were hearing them say. Not to parrot them (although sometimes it sounded like that) but to show them that we truly understood their fears and concerns. It was through establishing this "client-centered" relationship that progress might occur.

Now what does this have to do with education sales? Well, from what I'm learning from editing ECP-- everything! In this month's cover feature, for example, we hear from a spectrum of voices in the field that the way to sell into your client's tough economic climate is to... listen to them! What are their pain points? Can you find solutions that reflect your customers' needs, not your marketing bullets? As sales expert Chuck Kleiner says in the story, "The relationship you need to build with your customers is based on their problems, not your product."

Kleiner's comment echoes the theme of Larry Sugarman's EduSales 101 column last month, in which he talked about the importance of establishing trust with your customers. And how do you do that? By focusing on "the things that are important, interesting, or troubling" to them, he advises, even if they don't immediately relate to your product.

In future issues, you'll read the same kind of guidance about what it means to listen to customers-- and how the sales solution you propose should reflect back to them a deep understanding of their needs. Little did I know when I was practicing as a crisis counselor that I was in training for a future life as editor of a magazine for sales professionals. But there you have it.

What I strive for, as your editor, is to truly listen to you, and reflect back to you in these pages your needs and concerns. To that end, I invite your comments. As Humphrey Bogart once (sort of) said to Ingrid Bergman: Here's listening to you, kid.

Therese Mageau, Editor-in-Chief

Therese Mageau is Editor in Chief of Education Channel Partner magazine.