Next week, I'll be featuring 3 sales training articles from Jill Konrath. Can't wait? Here's one right now:
The Power of Silence: A Simple Sales Tactic that Will Get Your Prospects Talking More
If you're like most sellers, silence drives you crazy. When you're talking with a prospective client and there is a brief lull in the discussion, I'll bet you jump right in to fill it.
Am I right?
In my days at IBM, I learned that the average salesperson, after asking a question, waits no more than 2-3 seconds before rephrasing the question, answering it themselves or moving on to another topic. And my experience shows that normal sellers have no idea that they're doing this.
What Silence Doesn't Look Like
Here's an examples of what I'm talking about:
"Let me ask you a question: What is the one single thing that you or your company could do in the upcoming 12 months that would dramatically impact your sales?
(One thousand one... one thousand two... one thousand three)1
"I mean, if you really thought about it, what's causing you the most trouble in your sales efforts?
(One thousand one... one thousand two... one thousand three)
"I've been studying a lot about the challenges that salespeople are struggling with these days. They're really having trouble getting their foot in the door of big companies. Once they're in, it's really difficult to get people to change from the status quo. And, because of today's business climate, corporate decision makers are so risk averse.
"Are you finding that to be the case? Which of those issues are causing you the most frustration?
(One thousand one... one thousand two... one thousand three)
"Have you thought about how you could make it easier for you? I mean, like what kinds of marketing initiatives you could undertake?"
(One thousand one... one thousand two... one thousand three)
Okay. I'll stop now. Hopefully you got my point about the continual rephrasing and butting in that sellers do after they ask a question.
Waiting for It
What I really wanted to point out is what was lost because of the lack of silence.
Here's the first question again: "What is the one single thing that you or your company could do in the upcoming twelve months that would dramatically impact your sales?"
It's a provocative question. Decision makers can't answer it with a simple pat answer. It makes them stop and think, "Hmmmm. What would that one thing be? New offerings? More calls? Additional money in our marketing budget? Which would have the most impact?"
That's what you want them to do. Then, when they answer, you'll learn a whole lot about what's going on in their organization, what the big challenges are, the decision maker's perspective on the issues and solutions, and so much more.
But they can't think of all that in just 2-3 seconds. They need much longer to ponder the question, to play around with it in their mind and to sort through their options. In fact, they need 8-10 seconds to formulate the start of their answer. And once they get talking, they think of more ideas.
The Costs of Butting In
When you cut them off at only 2-3 seconds, you lose in more ways than you can imagine.
- You don't get the benefit of your good question. You never learn all the good stuff they could be telling you if you'd just kept your mouth shut a little longer.
- When you don't learn all this info, it's so much harder to sell anything because you don't know how your offering can make the biggest difference to your prospective client.
- Besides that, your prospect thinks that you're self-serving and only interested in achieving your own objectives. (Isn't that what you think when people keep cutting you off?)
- You don't establish a positive relationship with the person, so they really don't want to meet with you again.
And all this happens because you don't know how to count beyond three.
Making Silence Work for You
The value of silence in selling is rarely talked about. Mostly people focus on what they're going to say. Instead, I suggest that you try a bit more silence. Ask a question, lean back, and start counting to yourself. Start at one thousand one and keep right on going. If you hit one thousand ten and still don't have a response, then you can rephrase or interject something. But not before.
At first you'll be absolutely miserable doing this. (This is the voice of experience talking!) Nothing will seem harder. You'll be squirming and dying to jump in. Don't do it! Keep counting silently to yourself. Your prospective customers will start talking. You'll learn a whole lot more. You'll strengthen your relationships. They'll think you're smarter, more credible and more caring.
Silence is truly golden. Give it a try!
Footnote:
1For those of you who aren't familiar with "one thousand one ..." phrases, that's how we in America are taught to count off a second of time. Each one thousand is another second.
Jill Konrath is a Contributing Editor for RainToday.com and is a recognized expert in complex sales strategies and creating business value for B2B sales organizations. She is also founder of SellingtoBigCompanies – a web resource that helps professional services providers, consultants and salespeople win big contracts in the corporate market. E-mail Jill at jill@sellingtobigcompanies.com.
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