Answer these questions to see how accurately you hear what your communication partner intends you to hear, and how much business you are losing as a result. As I run my Kickstarter campaign to support my new book project Did You Really Say What I Think I Heard? I’ve gotten notes from all around the world: everyone thinks they listen accurately.

ASSESSMENT: HOW MUCH DO YOU SUCK AT LISTENING? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

’ll tell you the answer. A lot. Not only have you lost clients, but you’ve lost friends and lovers...

DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH BUSINESS YOU’VE LOST BECAUSE OF YOUR LISTENING SKILLS? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

For decades I’ve been writing books on decision making in the buying process.

WHAT IF WE COULD ALL HEAR EACH OTHER? NO, REALLY. is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

This article is an excerpt from Sharon Drew Morgen's new book “Did You Really Say What I Think I Heard?" coming out in late 2014 with a major business book publisher.

HOW TO LISTEN TO HEAR WHAT’S INTENDED is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

You do a great job gathering and uncovering data to understand the presenting problem. You obtain and discover the facts and uncertainty ranges to...analyze good decisions.You work hard at getting all of the right people on board and make sure you help them understand their desired outcomes, and then work collaboratively to make the best decisions. Yet sometimes there are delays, sabotage, resistance, or even failure – sometimes in your area of analysis and facilitation, sometimes later, during the implementation phase. The breakdowns, by and large, are rooted in human issues.

THE ROLE OF SYSTEMS, BIAS, AND EMOTION: THE MISSING PIECE IN DECISION FACILITATION is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Do you know why it takes so long for a buyer to buy? If the buyer knows they have a need, and they like you and your solution, shouldn't it be easy?

Why Your Sales Cycle is So Long (Hint: It’s Not About Your Solution) is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

There are almost as many definitions of Relationship Manager as there are for 'social media' or 'sales enablement.'

What, exactly, is a Relationship Manager? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

As sales professionals, I’m sure you recognize that the sales model is merely a solution placement model: it ignores the behind-the-scenes human issues that buyers must address and decide on prior to buying, leaving sales people outside the meat of the decisions during the largest portion of the buying decision path. I realized the flaw in the model as [...]

Buying Patterns, Buy Cycle, Buying Decisions is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

So many sales folks are targeting 'appointments' these days. I wonder if you know who actually is in attendance.

Who’s in the meeting – and who’s not? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

When you think about your numbers (closing percentages, total calls, etc.), and consider the objections...

Selling doesn’t cause buying is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

The sales model focuses on needs assessment and solution placement. A buying decision is a change management activity. They are two different activities, done at two different – and opposite – points along the buying decision journey.

A buying decision is a change management problem is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Do you know why you don’t close all the sales you deserve to close?
Do you know, on your first prospecting call, who will buy?
Do you know where buyers go when they say ‘I’ll call you back?” Do you know what takes buyers so long to buy when it seems so obvious to everyone – including them? You don’t know the answers to these questions. Because the sales model is geared for solution placement...

Sales is a Flawed Model is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Do you sit and wait for your buyer's to close? They need your solution. They like you. They are OK with the price. What's going on? Here are the 'Dirty Little Secrets' of why buyers don't buy, taken from my book of the same name...

12 Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers don’t buy is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

I’m here to tell you that cold calling can be one of the most effective ways to meet new prospects and close sales. And it's a whole...

Cold Calling Works – and it’s fun! is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Sales, the most manipulative and greed-filled of our business practices, could easily become a spiritual practice...

The Heart of Sales is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

How many of you know the exact percentage of sales you close?

Do you want to make a sale? or an appointment? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

What, exactly, is selling with integrity? Is it about creating great solutions that make a difference in companies and lives? Or respecting and serving our prospects and clients and employees? I’d like to talk about what that means for me…and admittedly, I’m a hammer looking for a nail: I”ve written a NYTimes Business Bestseller...

Selling with Integrity is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

As professionals a big part of our jobs is to influence change. We assume we know the appropriate means to get where we want to be. Certainly we think we know the right questions to get the data we think we need.

FACILITATIVE QUESTIONS: QUESTIONS THAT FACILITATE CHANGE WITH INTEGRITY is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

All leadership styles have some sort of interplay between accomplishing a goal and ensuring the people issues are handled in a way that achieves creativity, buy-in, and participation, and the leader and followers share in the decision making process.

PUTTING THE LEAD INTO LEADERSHIP: HOW TO INFLUENCE WITH INTEGRITY is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Any sales professional can be an order taker when times are flush and clients call in with orders.

Selling In Harder Times is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

My life’s work has focused on enabling bias-free decisions by facilitating the human criteria that often distort decisions. Until now, I’ve focused on helping sellers gather and support the Buying Decision Path. But I’m moving beyond sales to leadership, change management, and decision sciences. As I venture outside the field of sales I have been meeting [...]

How Do Decisions Get Made? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Until now, you’ve called yourselves relationship managers because you believe that by giving clients and prospects good service, advice, ideas, and professional behaviors you would prove yourselves worthy of being the chosen vendor. In other words, you’ve been using the title as a sales ploy. But you all sound alike: No matter how terrific you are, [...]

The New Relationship Manager: how to differentiate yourself is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Someone called recently to ask if I were a ‘sales thought leader’. I laughed. “It’s a trick question,” I replied. The term ‘sales thought leader’ is an oxymoron. As the person who developed a sales-related model to facilitate the behind-the-scenes aspects of the buyer’s decision path that can’t be addressed by the sales model (Buying Facilitation®), I’ve [...]

What is a sales ‘thought leader’? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

If you attempt to get meetings just to ‘get in front of’ a prospect (assuming that your solution will rule the day); if you present to whichever prospects will agree to see you; if you pitch when the buyer doesn’t have all of their ducks in a row, you're not only wasting your breath, but potentially losing a sale.

Wait until the Buying Decision Team is in place to visit or pitch is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

The field of marketing automation would like to get the right data, at the right time, to prospects who sign up on contact sheets. The problem is they are working from a sales model; but buyers buy using a change management model as they must address their internal, human, unique decision issues prior to a solution choice. Here is where the real influence happens.

An Intelligent Contact Sheet is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

The steps of a buying decision differ from the steps of a sale. The sales model has no way to influence the private decisions and buy-in issues that buyers must address before they can buy. Buyers live in a ‘system’ that maintains their Identified Problem (or ‘pain’) over time, creating work-arounds that [...]

9 Sales Steps that Influence a Buying Decision is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Would you buy a house without discussing it with your wife or family? Would you even know all of the buying criteria without their input? Would you bring in a leadership training without getting the buy-in from the people who would be trained? Or know their criteria without their voices? Would you choose a [...]

Help Buyers Choose the Buying Decision Team: a case study is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Your solution matches the buyer’s need perfectly. You like them, they like you, you’ve had coffee/a meal/a powerful meeting or two. They talk about implementation and how they need to add your other product next year. And then they buy from someone else. Or not at all. What happened? Are they stupid? Did they lie to [...]

Solution Selection: do we know how buyers choose one solution over another? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Around 85% of a buyer’s pre-purchase, back-end decision issues get addressed privately, outside of the seller’s purview, and a seller has no place at the table. Here is where we lose our sales – as buyers manage the internal politics, and the strategic/change issues – not because our solutions aren’t relevant or because we [...]

Buyers don’t sit and wait for sellers is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

The sales model ignores the buying environment all buyers live in outside of the purview of the seller. All buyers live in systems that must buy-in to a new purchase, regardless of the apparent need, and here is where sellers lose their sales. Let’s understand systems to begin with. A system is complex, adaptive, and eco-systemic. Families, companies, groups, and teams are comprised of...

Buyers Live in Systems is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

The steps of a buying decision differ from the steps of a sale. The sales model has no way to influence the private decisions and buy-in issues that buyers must address before they can buy. Buyers live in a ‘system’ that maintains their Ident…

Around 85% of a buyer’s pre-purchase, back-end decision issues get addressed privately, outside of the seller’s purview, and a seller has no place at the table. Here is where we lose our sales – as buyers manage the internal politic…

Sales people get confused when I suggest they can’t ’understand’ the buyer’s needs if they approach a sale with this outcome. Without everyone on board who will lend their voice to a possible solution, buyers cannot underst…

You’ve done your homework. You’ve found the right buyers – prospects with needs you can fulfill and can afford your solution. You’ve nurtured them, contacted them, met with them, scored them, pitched them, networked with them, sent them gifts. B…

Science, sales, negotiating, and the prison system – not to mention neuromarketing, neurosciences, and decision making sciences – have a base-line belief  that there is a ‘rational’ way to recognize choice -  rationality assumed …

Would you buy a house without discussing it with your wife or family? Would you even know all of the buying criteria without their input? Would you bring in a leadership training without getting the buy-in from the people who would be trained? Or know the…