©Tessa Stowe, Sales Conversation, 2007
You may think the key to selling your services is about talking and conveying lots of information to your potential client. Actually, talking is not the key to your success at selling. In fact, the opposite is true.
The key to your success in selling lies in your silence. You see, when you’re talking, you are not selling. Selling actually takes place when your potential client is talking and you are listening — in silence.
Your role in the sales conversation is to facilitate the conversation so you can listen as much as possible in silence. So forget about talking when selling. Instead, focus on being the facilitator, or almost silent conductor, and encourage your potential client to talk as much as possible.
As the facilitator or silent conductor, you structure the conversation with your questions and then once you have asked a question, you hand over the talking to your potential client and you listen in silence. When you ask a question, visualize the “question mark” as a STOP sign. As soon as you see the stop sign, stop talking and start listening in silence. Listen in silence outwardly and inwardly.
By listening in silence outwardly I mean that you say very little, and when you do talk, it is in order to encourage your potential client to keep talking. You may ask the occasional question to clarify your understanding or to encourage them to dig further with their answers. Or you may make a comment to acknowledge what they are saying and to show you are listening.
By listening in silence inwardly I mean that you are listening with a quiet mind. You are not planning what you are going to say next. You are not making judgments or assumptions. You are just 100% focused on what they are saying.
When you are listening in silence, both outwardly and inwardly, the person you’re talking to will feel this. They will feel that you are genuinely interested in their answers. They will also feel that you are genuinely interested in them. Subsequently, they’ll feel relaxed with you and will become more and more open with you.
Sometimes we feel uncomfortable with silence and want to fill the silence gap. Resist that temptation. When you ask a question and there is silence, just wait. When you give the person you are talking to the time, and the silence to think and to answer, you will find they will start to give you their real, golden answers.
If your potential client feels rushed to answer, they will become guarded. They’ll feel you are not sincerely interested and you will start to receive guarded answers.
From now on, when you ask questions, see the question mark as a stop sign and then listen in silence outwardly and inwardly. See how much silence you can contribute to the conversation and then watch the reaction of the person you’re talking to. Watch to see how much they open up and say to you. Listen to what they say to you and observe how golden it is.
Silence is golden when selling. Try it and see.
“”Those who know do not speak; Those who speak do not know.”
Lau Tzu
Author: Tessa Stowe teaches small business owners and recovering salespeople 10 simple steps to turn conversations into clients without being sales-y or pushy. Her FREE monthly Sales Conversation newsletter is full of tips on how to sell your services by just being yourself. Sign up now at www.salesconversation.com.
[tag]golden,silence[/tag]
Posted by Manuel
Manuel Montala was an online entrepreneur who enjoys blogging about entrepreneurship and gathering information for his blog to help budding entrepreneurs. You can also reach him on twitter: http://twitter.com/mmontala
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