You have probably heard some variation of proverbs and quotes that indicate we should listen more than we talk. For example: Mark Twain said, If we were meant to talk more than listen, we would have two mouths and one ear. An old German proverb states, A man has two ears and one mouth so that he hears much and speaks little.

And to follow-up on the listening more than talking, I want to add that we need to do much more than listen we need to hear and understand. I have seen too many advertising and public relations campaigns touting the virtues of a company, organization and/or individual as a good listener. I believe that is only part of what is required, If you listen and do not hear, and if your hear and do not understand, you will not be very effective. So when I say strategic listening, I mean that to include the hearing and understanding also.

Strategic listening is especially critical in business communications and marketing. And to accomplish the goal of becoming a good strategic listener, it is important to always have intelligent questions ready to ask the person or persons you are communicating with about business. Your questions should demonstrate that you have made an effort to get to know and understand a clients, customers or prospects business. Your questions should get the person or persons talking so you can really learn about them and their business.

If you can formulate the right questions, the client, customer or prospect will inform you of such things as: their business frustration or pain; what they really want and how they really want it; what is important and what is not important to them; whether or not they fit your ideal client profile; whether they have the financial resources to engage your services and/or buy your products; and much more.

And as a follow-up to these questions, you develop more questions to probe deeper into their responses. For example, you might ask them questions like: what have you tried before? Why didnt that work? If the decision were up to you, what would you do? What would the perfect solution look like to you? Are you talking to others about this project and if so, who are they? What is your timeline for your project? And basically keep on asking questions until you can form an opinion on what the solution or first step should be. You want the client, customer or prospect to feel they have met a trusted advisor, rather than someone delivering a sales pitch.

Strategic listening is very important and is really critical to the success of you and your business. One research study, Increasing Marketing Effectiveness at Professional Services Firms concluded that listening to the client and responding to what they say is a key to marketing effectiveness. When you listen you can gain a strategic advantage of being able to make adjustments based on what you hear and understand. Imagine how much more effective and successful you and your business can be if you ask the right questions, listen, hear and understand the answers. And then you follow-up with your approach to your clients, customers and prospects based upon on those answers. This will be much more effective than delivering a canned sales pitch and missing the opportunity to learn about their needs, concerns, goals, problems, challenges, issues, threats, and opportunities.

Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach encourages you to fully realize the benefits of business coaching to strategically listen to manage and grow your business. If you would like to learn more about how a strategic thinking business coach can facilitate and guide you in that endeavor, please contact Glenn Ebersole today through his website at www.businesscoach4u.com or by email at jgecoach@aol.com

Glenn Ebersole, Jr. is a multi-faceted professional, who is recognized as a visionary, guide and facilitator in the fields of business coaching, marketing, public relations, management, strategic planning and engineering. Glenn is the Founder and Chief Executive of two Lancaster, PA based consulting practices: The Renaissance Group, a creative marketing, public relations, strategic planning and business development consulting firm and J. G. Ebersole Associates, an independent professional engineering, marketing, and management consulting firm. He is a Certified Facilitator and serves as a business coach and a strategic planning facilitator and consultant to a diverse list of clients. Glenn is also the author of a monthly newsletter, Glenns Guiding Lines Thoughts From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach and has published more than 250 articles on business.

To find out more about the benefits & rewards of effectively working with a strategic thinking business coach, please contact Glenn Ebersole through his web site at http://www.businesscoach4u.com or jgecoach@aol.com

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