Selling by listening: the power of shutting up

We've all met the salesman who won't stop talking

We've all been on the receiving end of a salesman who talks and talks and talks. Barely pausing to breathe, talking over you, going into excruciating detail about utterly irrelevant crap you don't care about.

Often you put up with the torture because you really want or need what they're selling. Interrupting with "OK, got it, how much is it?" or "I'm not interested in that, can you just tell me the next steps?" achieves nothing. They plough on, and with every second that passes, your desire to buy from them shrinks.

Sometimes they still close the sale. But sometimes you just think: having this thing I need just isn't worth listening to this moron.

The deals you never know you lost

As sales professionals, chances are we've all been that moron at one time or another. Breathlessly throwing as much shit at the wall as possible to see what sticks. Trying, with enthusiasm and trial and error, to hit on the prospect's secret desire: the one thing that brought them to you in the first place. The problem only you can solve, and that they'll pay you a fat cheque for.

It's one of the biggest reasons sales pros fail in the long run. I say in the long run because people will still buy from you when you do this. It can even look like you're succeeding, with a refined pitch that works on most prospects.

What you don't see are all the prospects you oversold to and burnt. The ones who would have bought from you, paid a higher price, bought a better package, closed sooner, or been open to an upsell or cross-sell.

Why do salespeople talk too much?

Is it nervous enthusiasm? A lack of a better idea? Inexperience? It can be all of these. But at heart, it comes down to two things:

1. Not asking the right questions.
2. Not shutting up and listening.

If you don't really know who you're talking to, your only option is to talk aimlessly about things you think they might be interested in. Hitting and hoping that something lands. Waffling and boring them into submission.

Why listening is the most powerful skill in sales

The most powerful thing you can do in sales is listen to the prospect. And to listen properly, you need to ask the right questions.

Once you get them talking, and you control the conversation and shape its direction, you can sell anything. In fact, you don't really have to "sell" at all. You plant the seed in the prospect's mind, and they do the work for you.

What is a discovery call for?

The most important part of any sales call is always the discovery. It's where you:

1. Build trust and establish your credentials.
2. Let the prospect talk themselves into it, with gentle suggestion and intelligent questions.
3. Gather all the information you need to close.
4. Frame the conversation around something other than price.

A lesson from South Korea: how not pitching opened the door

Recently I went to South Korea to find local distribution for a product I export from Europe. I'd hired a local business development rep with a good network to set up meetings ahead of the trip.

Korean business culture is very formal and unhurried. It's not the sort of place where people like to cut a deal in the room, and they're often guarded about what they really think.

One meeting started in the usual way: bowing, and a somewhat ritual exchange of business cards. We sat down and exchanged a few pleasantries. Then the very first thing the Chairman told me was that he'd only taken the meeting out of politeness to my rep, and that he wasn't interested in adding new suppliers.

I was very pleased. The formality and politeness of Korean business culture can make open feedback hard to get, so his directness struck me as an opportunity.

I took all the pressure off. I said I completely understood his position, and I made zero attempt to explain why my products were better, even though they demonstrably were. I simply asked him one question.

"Why are you so happy with your current suppliers?"

I didn't slip in little details about why mine might be better. I just let the conversation flow naturally: no strange or jarring salesy questions, just two people talking business over a coffee.

As I carefully shaped the conversation, he began to reveal two things: the problems he had with his current suppliers, and the real reason he didn't want to consider new ones.

His main problem was that he had to plan orders months in advance to guarantee a consistent supply. That increased his risk, his costs and his operational burden. And if he got it wrong, or his suppliers made a mistake, he could run out of stock.

With the pressure gone and the conversation flowing, he was now openly inviting a proposal. Then came the question I'd been waiting for: "How do you operate?"

Funnily enough, I operated in exactly the way that solved the problems he'd just told me about. That was perfectly true: I knew exactly how to solve his problems, while delivering a better product.

Why selling through suggestion works

Done correctly, suggestion plants the idea in the prospect's mind. The whole impetus to close comes from them, not from you.

That gets you to the closing stage without ever pitching. The prospect usually asks you all the questions that matter to them, and you can answer each one in the best possible way, based on the problems they've already told you about.

Then, when they're ready to close, they ask one of those beautiful questions, like "OK, so how much is this all going to cost me?" By then you have all the information you need and you understand their incentives. You're negotiating from a position of strength, with the whip hand.

Do this correctly and you're in full control of the whole sale and conversation, while the prospect doesn't feel persuaded or sold to at all. And nobody gets cold feet and backs out, because it was their idea to begin with.

Make the prospect think it's their idea

Whether it's a complex international trade deal like the one above, a data-driven marketing sale or a simple consumer product, there's only one way to guarantee a prospect closes. They have to think the whole thing was their idea.

Let them sell themselves, and your close rate will exceed all expectations.

Do your job properly and it won't even feel like you're selling.