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Weekly Business Development Tip
Silence Is Golden
How many times have you talked yourself right out of a sale? You may not know the answer to this question or even realize that you are facilitating your departure form your prospect’s office simply because you are talking too much. If you are like most people when in a sales situation, silence or a lull in the conversation drives you crazy and you feel compelled to speak. Do yourself a big favor..DON’T TALK SO MUCH!
If you ask a question and don’t get an immediate answer, conventional sales training would teach you to rephrase the question and keep moving towards the close (always be closing). If you are asking the tough questions, and if you are asking them of the right people (i.e. the ultimate decision maker), it is not unreasonable to think that your prospects need time to react. They may need time to get their thoughts together to give a proper response. Why would you want to interrupt them and distract them with another question or possibly give them the answer to the question that you asked previously? How do you feel when someone interrupts you?
Your prospects need time to consider your questions. I would encourage you to start counting the next time there is dead air in the room when you are on a sales call. One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand up to ten one thousand if you can stand it. Count silently to yourself. Ten seconds of silence may seem like ten minutes, but remember this, he/she who speaks first loses.
You will never learn about your prospects problems, concerns, and frustrations if you do the majority of the talking. Your prospect will feel as though they are being interrupted. They may look at you as being rude, self serving and concerned only about your agenda. You've blown the opportunity to connect with your prospect. You've blown the opportunity to have your prospect like you. How will you ever be able to provide a proper solution to your prospect's problem, if you don't allow him/her to express the problem?
Before arriving at your prospect's office, you should be strategizing and role playing in your mind about what is going to happen. You should think about what you are going to say before you arrive in the prospect's office. Try this..Think about what you are NOT going to say.
Rule of thumb...when in a sales mode, you should listen 70-80% of the time and talk 20-30% of the time. SILENCE IS GOLDEN.
"If I lose, I'll walk away and never feel bad because I did all I could. There was nothing more to do." Joe Frazier – Boxer
Ken
Ken Levine
Impact Business Solutions, Inc.
508-845-8849
SELL MORE BY SELLING LESS
www.impactbussolutions.com
Call toll free: 877-845-8849
