How Silence Can help You Close More Sales

Sales Articles | May 29, 2005

Silence is Golden
Want to close more sales? STOP TALKING!!!!! Think back to your high school and college days. When your teacher or professor told you that whatever he/she was talking about was going to be on a test or quiz, did you listen more intently? Did you wakeup and start taking notes? Were you suddenly trying to capture as much information as possible?

When you are on a sales call, it's not too much different than what was supposed to happen when you were in a classroom environment. You were there to learn. You were there to obtain information.

Your client is meeting with you presumably because they need help. Are you giving your clients the solution before you really understand the problem? Do you have a tendency to interrupt people and give them your ideas before they can complete a sentence? When you do the talking, you are inhibiting your prospects and clients from wanting to talk. Your job is not to dominate the conversation and give a lot of advice. Your job is to listen, and encourage your prospects to keep on talking. Your job is to help your customer solve a problem. Your job is to find the root of the problem and determine if your customer wants to fix it. You can't do that if you are dominating a conversation.

Encourage your prospects and clients to do the majority of the talking. Use short statements and questions to encourage your prospects to continue giving you more information. Some examples are. "Tell me more. Can you elaborate on that? Please go on. How long has this been a problem? Could you give me an example of that? How have you tried to fix the problem? What is the financial impact of this problem?"

Next time you are in a sales situation and you are trying to understand the customer's motivations, concerns, problems, pains and challenges, pretend what they are saying will be on a test. Listen 70-80% of the time.

Don't be too surprised if your closing ratio increases as your talking decreases. An "A" on this test is a closed sale. B's and C's don't count.

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly" - Robert F. Kennedy

Have a great week

Please call me if I can help with any business development and prospecting questions.

Ken

Ken Levine
Impact Business Solutions, Inc.
508-845-8849
www.impactbussolutions.com

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ken Levine is a sales and business development coach. he works with company presidents, sales teams and busienss owners to help them be more effective in finding new business opportunities. Ken helps his clients find new opportunities, and transition these "suspects" to become prospects and then clients.