Are you a good listener ?

Paraphrase Your Listening
The client or co-worker is only sure that you have been listening when you paraphrase what he or she has said and feed it back in your own words. This is where the rubber meets the road in effective listening. This is where you demonstrate in no uncertain terms to your  client or co-worker that your listening has been real and sincere. This is where you show the person that you were paying complete attention to what he or she was saying. Paraphrasing is how you prove it.

Question for Clarification
When the person has finished explaining his or her situation to you, and you have paused, and then questioned for clarification, you paraphrase the persons primary thoughts and concerns, and feed them back to him or her in your own words.

Use the Right Words
For example, you might say, “Let me make sure I understand exactly what you are saying. It sounds to me like you are concerned about two things more than anything else, and that in the past you have had a couple of experiences that have made you very careful in approaching a decision of this kind.”

Earn the Right to Sell Yourself to Anyone
Only when you and the person completed a thorough “examination” and have mutually agreed on the “diagnosis” you are in a position to begin talking to the person about what you want them to hear. This means that you have to patient and concerned about the other persons speaking needs above your own.

Be a Good Listener
The more and better you listen, the more and better people will like you, trust you and want to do business with you. The more they will want to get involved with you as a person and the more popular you will be with them. Excellent listeners are welcome everywhere, in every walk of life, and they eventually and ultimately arrive at the top of their fields.

Are you listening now ?