Financial Services Industry Sales Training: Questioning/Listening

FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY IMPROVEMENT IN CRITICAL SALES SKILL #3: QUESTIONING/LISTENING QUESTIONING/LISTENING. Great listeners ask great questions. The best salespeople don’t just ask questions; they ask the best questions. These are the questions that allow you to develop a better understanding of the customer’s situation and demonstrate your sincere interest in the customer. Salespeople who do this the best, sell themselves to the customer. The ‘salesperson’ is the first buying decision that the customer makes. When it’s made in your favor the rest of the buying decisions become far easier to achieve. REMARKABLE FINDINGS ABOUT QUESTIONING/LISTENING SKILLS IN THE FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY

1. The Financial Services Industry slightly lagged the Universe in pre-training on Questioning Skills.
2. Improvement in this skill produced a healthy gain in Knowledge and Application.

The Financial Services Industry (banks, credit unions, credit-card companies, insurance companies, consumer-finance, stock brokerages and investment funds) had remarkable skill gain from sales training. Highlights of the Financial Service industry’s performance looks like a come-from-behind victory. Financial Services lagged the Universe in every pre-sales training category. Overall, they started 4 points behind the Universe in Knowledge and 5 points behind in Application. However, they had one of the highest percentage improvements of any industries in the study.