How DOING NOTHING Can WIN You The SALE

We hear all kinds of sales advice. Some say work ten times harder, some say become an expert at your client's industry and others come up with complex uses of language. I’m sure all these approaches have merit but who has the time?

The skill I want to share with you is something that you may already be good at and just need to apply it at the appropriate time. The secret skill is just “Do Nothing”, yes thats right Doing Nothing can dramatically increase your effectiveness in selling. Let me show you how.

When we are on a sales call, we usually have a couple of stages. First we want to build rapport and then we begin to exchange information. We will ask questions and answer the client's questions. We have an engaging conversation about their company, objectives, challenges and priorities. Near the end of the meeting is a great time to ask an open ended question to gage how good of a match our product is for the client. You may ask something like “So what do think?” or something similar. Here is where you use my magic sales trick and “Do Nothing”. When I say do nothing I mean you put a small smile on your face and look inquisitive, much like a dog watching TV. The key to “Do Nothing” is to stick with it, meaning you do not talk until the client has answered.

The power of doing nothing is that it does two great things. First it gives your client the opportunity to think and it creates a little bit of pressure for them to open up. Without the this uncomfortable silence that is caused by “Doing Nothing”, you may not discover your client’s true feelings. What you will find is that you will get a deeper and more thoughtful answer, when you give your client the extra time to reflect.

Comedians know the power of “Doing Nothing”, they will start a joke and then have a long silence. The comedian will tell a story with facial expressions and long pauses of silence. These pauses force the audience to think, to imagine the story in their mind and the laughter follows. The great Andy Kaufman could do a whole set without saying a word.

“Doing Nothing” in this context is not as easy as doing nothing on a rainy day. When we are in front of a client we feel the need to keep the conversation flowing and tend to talk more then we should. When we ask a question we are already thinking about our next question or talking point. If we could only “Do Nothing” for just a minute we would learn so much more.

You already know how to “Do Nothing” now all you have to do is do at the right moment.

If you listen to PodCasts, check out mine “The Brutal Truth about Sales & Selling”.

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I welcome connections and thanks for reading this post,

Brian