Tame the Tongue
If you are selling anything I have just one piece of advice for you that will make you more money than you could ever imagine.
Tame the tongue. Shut up, please. Just shut up! Stop the yapping and just listen.
If you’re in any level of sales, you must learn to Tame the Tongue. Just learn to stop talking at some point and allow the prospect or client to tell you what they want and how to sell them. They will tell you these things if you just shut up and listen.
The reality is that everyone has a communication device of some kind. And, as part of the available tools on that advice are apps like Google that will allow the user to access any type or amount of information they want, nearly instantaneously. And with that ability, people simply don’t need and do not want to be told anything. However, the biggest mistake that salespeople have made over the millennia, and continues to make, is they tell, tell and tell some more why you should listen to them and buy from them.
If anything, technology forces the smart salesperson to first ask questions, seeking and verifying needs and then, and only then to speak to those specific needs. That’s solution selling at its finest. There simply is no tolerance for anything else. More than any other time in history, prospects and clients are requiring that for them to be your customer, you must be a world class listener. Anything less, they don’t need or want you wasting their time. And, if you’re honest with yourself you know that it is a waste of time. How in the world can you expect to earn the right to work for someone if your entire sales value story is telling them how thick your resume is and all the things that you can do for them. And all of this “bragging” when you don’t even know what they need. It may be one of the talents that you bring to the table but don’t make them sit through your grocery list of skills hoping that they might hear something they like. Believe me, if they’re nice, they’re acting like they’re listening but in reality, they’ve shut you off long ago.
When I’m teaching people how to up their sales game, a hallmark of this course is always the QUESTION phase of selling. My go to, killer statement is simple and short. After initial greetings, I will always say, “I’m not right for everyone. What I’d really like to do is ask you a few questions that in the end will tell me, and more importantly you, if it makes sense that we should be working together.”
It works every time. When I learned to Tame my Tongue, ask questions then to shut up and listen my entire career changed. But, if you don’t agree, that’s ok. Keep talking and telling. In fact, let me know where you’ll be at, because I want to follow you in and I guarantee you that I will get the business.