How many times have you been standing next to a salesman who talked too much, confused the prospect and lost the sale? I must have seen this happen 100s of times. I’ve even been on sales appointments where the person I was with couldn’t shut up and blew our sale.
Sometimes simply shutting up and letting the prospect think can make all the difference in the world. For some odd reason, we salesmen think we have to fill dead silence with hot air. It almost never helps close the deal.
Talking too much can annoy the piss out of a prospect. No one likes a salesman who doesn’t know when to shut up. Most prospects want salesmen to answer their questions, not fill their heads with useless facts and sales pitches.
If you find yourself doing any of the below listed actions, stop immediately. The first step to stopping stupidity is being self aware. If anything on this list strikes a nerve with you, get a grip on it, control it and regain your composure.
8 Ways To Quickly Talk Your Way Out of Potential Laydown Sales
Interrupting: If your prospect is talking shut up. It’s that simple. No one likes to be interrupted. Especially people who are considering buying from you. Wait your turn to speak or your pockets will be hurting.
Talking about you instead of them: They are not talking to you to buy you. Many salesmen say they sell themselves, that’s not true. They sell the benefits of their product. It’s not about you and how much you know, it’s about them and the reason they are considering making the purchase.
Being in your own head: If the prospect is talking to you and you’re talking to yourself inside your head, how can you listen to what they need? If the voice in your head is the loudest, you can bet you’ll look like a fool when they ask you a question and you give them some BS answer because you didn’t hear what they asked.
Thinking of comebacks: This happens to salesmen the most. They hear part of what they prospect says then spend the rest of their time thinking of how to overcome the objection. Nothing is worse than when a salesman interrupts a client with an instant comeback.
Not listening: “I’m sorry, what did you say?” is one of the worst things you can say to a buyer. This is especially rampant on phone sales. Today many salespeople are surfing facebook and reading texts while the prospect is on the phone talking. This shows the prospect you don’t care about what they have to say.
Assuming: When you start talking about what you assume they need, you start talking your way out of a sale. Each person believes they have a unique story. If you assume, even if you’re right, you rob them of the ability to vent to you so you can bond with them and gain trust.
Telling not selling: Selling involves listening and solving the prospect’s problem. Telling involves spewing diarrhea of the mouth all over someone who’d rather not hear it. Your main job is to look for the problem and provide a practical solution. Not tell them how great you are and how cool what you sell is.
Overselling: When they say “I’ll take it” thank them and STFU! The deal is done. There’s no need to keep on. It’s done. They are closed. They are happy. Anything else said, besides the answer to any questions they ask, is ancillary and unwanted.
On sales calls where I close for large amounts of cash, my #1 objective is to be the one who talks the least. He who talks the most in a sales conversation, loses the most. Selling is like playing poker, you don’t want to show the other dude all your cards until the deal is over.
As you know, selling is an art. The ability to change a human being’s mind is not to be taken lightly. Neither is the gift of gab, but if you abuse it, much like your commissions, you’ll lose it.
