The Power Of Holding Your Tongue
Charles Anderson
Peak-Performance Sales Coach - I help experienced B2B sales professionals fast-track their sales success by Conquering the Battles Within. Please text me at 339-927-2746 for a complimentary sales planning call.
While effective communication is an essential skill in sales, it is equally important for sellers to know when to hold their tongue and actively listen. Active listening allows sellers to gain valuable insights, tailor their offerings, and build credibility and trust.
In addition, sellers can uncover valuable information, identify nonverbal cues, and establish genuine connections by enabling customers to express themselves.
Active listening involves fully concentrating on the prospects and customers’ words, understanding their needs, and empathizing with their concerns. By actively listening, sellers gain valuable insights into the buyer’s aspirations and afflictions—their purchasing motives—and their timelines and urgency to buy.
Sellers who have mastered the art of deep listening are providing something that is becoming hard and harder to find. If sellers satisfy this basic human need, they will establish trust and likely get the prospect’s business.
Sellers need to hold their tongues and stop talking.
They say we have two ears and one mouth for a reason, so why is it so difficult for sellers to stop talking and listen? It’s as if they’re addicted to talking. Sellers who can ask questions and hold their tongues long enough to listen to the answers will immediately improve their sales results.
According to a recent survey, Sixty-eight percent of buyers are influenced by sellers who listen well. But the sellers aren’t doing very well in this area. Buyers report that only twenty-six percent of sellers are effective listeners.
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Buyers purchase from sellers they respect and like. They engage and listen to sellers they respect and like. They take advice from sellers they respect and like. But, unfortunately, if the seller is talking, they won’t pick up on the cues that indicate what’s important to the buyer. As a result, they miss the opportunity to build rapport, credibility, and trust, the trifecta for creating meaningful relationships.
Everyone loves to talk about themselves—to tell their story. But, if sellers don’t provide buyers the space to do so, they’ll feel ignored, overwhelmed, and, most importantly, unheard. Not a good way to start the buying and selling experience.
To be effective, sellers must listen twice as much as they speak. Their job is to make the customer feel important and listened to, and when this happens and it’s time to close the deal, the buyer and seller collaborate to reach a win-win agreement.
The next time you are about to say something, stop and ask yourself: “Is what I’m about to say need to be said?"
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