Long ago, a trusted friend and mentor gave me an “insider’s tip to success.“ He took me aside, and in hushed, semi-secretive tones said simply,
“You know, there are only two rules for success in business. The first one is . . . don’t tell everything you know.”
As I moved to the edge of my seat anxiously awaiting the revelation of the all-important second rule, he just looked at me with a knowing smile – - patiently waiting for the significance of the first rule to sink in. I finally caught on, to his obvious delight. He wasn’t going to tell me rule number two . . . because if he did, he would have violated rule number one!
In this simple exchange, I realized three important lessons:
a. the value of speaking clearly,
b. the secret of listening actively,
c. and the immense importance of communication.
And possibly more importantly, the inevitable consequence of not maintaining a proper balance between these three elements.
You may be simply talking too much . . . listening too little . . . and selling less than you could and should be as a result. More often than you may think, you could be talking someone out of the deal, rather than getting him or her interested in doing business with you.
Yes, it is true: You are paid to talk to people, to get them interested, to give presentations, to generate and present proposals, to close deals. It all calls for an almost constant outflow of communication, right? Well, not exactly . . .
While you do have to become comfortable and competent in speaking to people, a total focus on this element of the job and a neglect of the elements of equal import will leave you wondering why you aren’t closing more contracts. A slight adjustment in the way you approach selling could give you greater returns–and in less time–than you ever imagined.
All you need to do is stop talking for a moment, and begin listening actively. It is the mark of the successful salesman, the true professional, who understands how, why, and, most importantly, when to speak, and when to keep his mouth shut and listen. That’s what this article is about.
MOST SALESMEN TALK TOO MUCH
True story: One very able salesman I know monitors how much he is talking by whether or not he is getting dizzy while continuing a fire-hose-like approach to his presentation. Not that he is uninteresting, but the avalanche of words is almost too much for anyone. The listener reaches the point of saturation, and eventually turns off entirely. Unfortunately, this situation is not uncommon in the sales profession.
Now, it’s easy to point fingers at blowhard salesmen from our own experiences as buyers. The car salesman who talks non-stop through the whole test-drive. The unbidden phone solicitor. The open house real estate agent who won’t leave you alone for a moment and insists on rapid-fire narrative through the whole tour. When you try to get a word in edge-wise, it seems these CO2 machines grudgingly let you blurt out your question or comment, then continue with complete disregard to your concerns. It’s a problem.
Whatever the individual reasons behind it, it is a very real situation that affects adversely far too many otherwise able salespeople. But, as with bad breath, people don’t normally mention it. They just go away as quickly as possible.
Most salesmen tend to talk too much when they first get into the business, thinking it’s a requisite for success. And without direction, it’s a slow maturation as they learn by trial and error and outgrow the tendency.
Unfortunately, some salesmen never even get that important slow growth because they become stunted by an early fluke success. Every now and then the sales filibuster approach actually works, as a prospect becomes so spellbound with the “magical” presentation before him that he hypnotically signs whatever is put under his pen. But this is nearly the worst thing that can happen. The salesman then credits that experience as the key to his success. As time passes, he still goes about his business as a green rookie, despite years of experience under his belt, filling every available bit of space with the sound of his own voice.
So what’s the answer, anyway? How does anybody ever sell anything? Well, if you suppress the urge to over-talk, fight back the fears that cause it, and relax, you will begin to really see those presently in front of you. And, I think you’ll agree, they are not threatening in the main. Instead, they are mostly there to gain something from the interaction with you. You’ll find they are usually willing to let you entertain, enlighten, and inspire them . . . adding a little life to what is often an otherwise dull and ordinary day.
From your position as a potential source of help for them, you have the opportunity to really see what they want, what they are reacting to, positively or negatively, and handle accordingly. There will never be any canned, memorized script that substitutes for a real live person communicating to the prospect. This is your big advantage. Most of the people you are talking to have never really been communicated to before.
Live communication in the fullest sense of the word, is probably the second most desired element of human interaction. Yet it is so seldom found, that if you can accomplish this in your sales efforts, you will be noticed . . . if only from the lack of competition in this arena. You’ll be in “rare air,” and stand out from the crowd, that’s for sure; and in this over-communicated society, you can use all the help you can get!
The moral is, you can’t hope to succeed consistently if you only communicate to people and not with them. Of necessity, you must engage in communication with them; it’s a mutual exchange. Now, since I’ve designated communication as our buzzword, we’ll take a closer look at it in part two of this article.
Luckily, it’s is not difficult to know about, understand, and apply.
daniel w. jacobs
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