Don't let opportunities pass you by! Learn to listen and your world will open up, offering you a lot more fulfilling career and personal life. Poor listening can create misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and frustration that could be avoided; effective listening means enhanced professionalism, greater job satisfaction, and improved personal relations.

The listening chapters in Skyrocket Your Sales cover obstacles to listening, benefits from improved listening, and 14 valuable ways to become an outstanding listener. Sections on nonverbal communication teach how to analyze body language signals and make them work for you. The information on questioning includes discussions of benefits of asking questions during the sales cycle, major categories of questions to use, and how to make questioning more effective. Some of the benefits that readers of Skyrocket Your Sales will receive are:

Improved performance at job interviews Greater effectiveness as managers or administrators Better resolution of conflicts Reduction of misunderstandings, false expectations, and disappointments Improved negotiating capabilities The ability to absorb new information faster and retain it longer

Salespeople will be rewarded with greater, easier, and cleaner sales. Improve your listening-the “people skill” most often neglected-and you'll notice a change for the better in your professional and personal life.

Author Ray Slesinski has been a senior level trainer in the sales training department for Digital Equipment Corporation. He has given more than 800 presentations throughout the U.S. and abroad on effective speaking techniques, finance, sales skills, and motivational topics. He is president of his own training and consulting firm, and is the author of several other business books. A member of the National Speakers Association and Sales and Marketing Executives International, Slesinski holds B.S. and M.A. degrees in economics.

Raymond A. Slesinski