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How Important is Listening in the Referral Process?
One of our great communications expert once said, "The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them." The skill we need to stay in the conversation is real listening or what I've heard called interactive listening. For most human beings real listening is extremely hard. We were born with and we acquire filters to shut out information. The human brain processes more than 35,000,000 bits of sensory information per second, it's no wonder that people have a hard time listening.Webster defines the word listen as a verb: "to attend closely as to hear." But most of us don't realize that listening is not really hearing. Listening is the most important skill you must have to become a phenomenal networker. Only through listening can you begin to build trust and rapport. Through the art of listening you will gather the information that you'll need to begin the process of giving and helping. Remember the philosophy of Givers Gain. When you begin to really listen, your networking partners will feel that they have really connected with you and that you are truly interested in them. Of course the result of you listening is that the people in your life will become more open and they will share more information about themselves.Therefore, listening is a conscious choice networkers must make. Effective listening begins with a genuine desire to listen to other people. This also means forgetting about yourself for the moment. Often with out intending to be rude, a persons enthusiasm for a subject and our own desire to hear ourselves talk will get in our networking opportunities.If we all practice how to listen with empathy, we won't hear the words "You're hearing me, but you're not listening." Always try to learn something from every conversation. Practice patience. Give the other professional enough time to tell their story. Listen with the intention of gathering information, making a connection, building trust and rapport.