Five Sales Scenarios When Dead Air is Good

Typical rapid-fire sales people think talking is selling. Consequently, they bombard their customers with product and company information that can actually prevent a sale. Many sales people would be wiser to listen more than they talk and let buyers sell themselves.

Here are five sales scenarios when a little dead air can accelerate the close.

1. Anytime a Prospective Customer Speaks – It is just good manners to listen when someone speaks. But many sales people are so eager to share their vast product knowledge they actually interrupt buyers and miss the opportunity to learn. Listening quietly while a prospective customer speaks provides the best opportunity to understand their needs at any stage of the sales process. It’s impossible to learn when you’re talking and incredibly easy when you’re listening.
2. Discovery & Qualification Calls – Sales people that prescribe solutions without a consultation and diagnosis commit sales malpractice. You’d be suspicious if your doctor walked into the exam room and gave you a completed prescription while telling you how a specific medication will help before taking the time to ask why you’re there. Sales people who ask compelling questions and listen are much more credible because they’re better able to communicate benefits of their products in the language of the buyer – the only language buyers understand.
3. Issues & Consequences – Do a better job of getting your prospective customers to articulate the financial impact of the issues your products address. The value of your solution is a by-product of that conversation. It’s a much easier tactic than trying to convince them to believe in your best-case pre-packaged figures. Be sure they include direct costs, lost opportunity costs, personnel costs, and so forth. Gather this information early in the sales cycle and when possible, make sure the decision makers are behind the numbers to avoid speed bumps later in the sales process.
4. Presentations – Sales presentations aren’t telling buyers about your products or your company. They’re about your ability to convey your understanding of a buyer’s needs and reasons those needs are critical to bigger picture goals. Repeat what you’ve learned during the discovery process, then be quiet and listen intently to get confirmation before offering your solutions. Let your buyers fill the air waves. It makes them feel better and that feeling helps them justify reasons your products are better than the alternatives.
5. Closing the Sale – More sales are lost due to over-zealous closers than poor performing products. Once the needs of the buyer have been communicated and the most relevant solution is agreed upon, the sale should all but close itself. By allowing appropriate dead air time, your buyer can share essential details and have the opportunity to show buying signs that all good sales people recognize. When that moment occurs – stop talking and allow your buyer to be sold. More often than not, you won’t have to ask for the business. Watching sales people talk themselves out of a sale is like watching an imminent train wreck that can’t be stopped.

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