Many salespeople and managers feel that the greatest barriers to maximizing productivity and achieving results are gaps in their product, service, process or people. Others blame lackluster performance on poor training, coaching, support, a saturated market, competition, difficult customers, weak leads or a limited prospect database.

However, sales is ultimately an advanced form of communication—and the foundation of successful communication in any area is how well you listen.

In sales, the ability to actively listen dramatically improves client trust and a salesperson’s capabilities. Ironically, however, many salespeople receive no formal training in effective listening skills.

Contrary to popular belief, listening is a complex process and a learned skill that requires a conscious intellectual, physical and emotional effort. To listen well takes concentration, hard work, patience, detachment from your own agenda, being present in the moment, maintaining objectivity, and the ability to interpret and summarize people’s ideas, as well as identify nonverbal communication, such as body language.

You may have heard about the difference between passive and active listening, but in reality, there are three types of listening:

1) Passive listening. Also known as “assumptive listening,” passive listening requires limited or no effort at all. Our ears naturally hear the noise that surrounds us. Distinguishing what to listen to and what to filter out is not one of the skills of a passive listener. There’s no mindful focus involved—and that means much of what a passive listener hears is rooted in their own assumptions.

2) Active listening. Active listeners recognize that listening requires conscious attention and a deeper focus on the message—both what is said and what is not being said. Active listeners take into consideration people’s verbal and non-verbal communication, with a greater sensitivity regarding who they’re communicating with.

3) Proactive listening. Also known as “intentional listening,” proactive listening involves being present, focused and engaged with your audience. You’re listening for key insights, opinions, information or cues that trigger the right questions to create selling opportunities.

Proactive listeners pay close attention to the how and the why. They take the time to understand the other person’s point of view before sharing their own. They listen with the intent to truly learn who the person is, rather than listening with the intent to reply with their own thoughts and agenda.

In sales, a proactive listener is hypersensitive to the importance of getting to the root cause of a challenge or the objectives that are most important to the prospect—which makes them more adept at understanding their customers and giving them what they want. Rather than dumping product knowledge on a prospect, the proactive listener takes what they learn from listening and crafts powerful, relevant follow-up questions that move the conversation forward.

Listening proactively improves the quality of relationships with customers, friends, co-workers, employees, supervisors and family members. Ineffective listening can damage relationships and deteriorate the trust that you have created, especially with your customers. The ultimate price? Lost sales opportunities.

Keith Rosen, CEO of Profit Builders and founder of Coachquest, has delivered his programs to hundreds of thousands of people in practically every industry in over 75 countries. Rosen has written several bestsellers, including “Sales Leadership,” “Own Your Day” and the globally acclaimed “Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions,” winner of five international best book awards and the No. 1 bestselling sales management book on Amazon for eight consecutive years.