Effective Listening Teaching Students a Critical Marketing Skill

Abstract

Listening is a skill critical for success in many marketing activities, especially personal selling. In this study, listening instruction and practice were presented to 598 business students in the classroom setting. Pre- and post-instruction testing revealed significant improvement in students' ability to overcome distractions, detect central ideas, and evaluate the message; no significant improvement occurred in the ability to control the emotional reaction to a message. In contrast to other studies, mean scores of males and females showed no difference. The results are especially important for skill building in the field of marketing education. Sales, consumer research, and advertising all rely on an ability to take the perspective of the potential buyer, and insight into that perspective is often gained through the ability to listen effectively.

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