If you want to become a better salesperson there is one skill that you absolutely must learn and that is to become a good listener. So many people are convinced that the way to make a sale is to keep on talking about the benefits of the product in order to impress the prospect when, in fact, the opposite is often the case.
Just to begin with, you may be emphasizing the wrong benefits of the product. For example, it may seem to you that the main benefit of the product is that it will make your prospect more money in his business so that is what you talk about. However, your prospect\'s main interest is that it will help him get the job done in half the time and that therefore he will have more time to spend with his family. You are discussing the same product but have two entirely different points of view.
The point being that if you had LISTENED to the prospect you would have understood what it is that drives him and what it is that will convince him to buy. By you talking so much he never had a chance to tell you what it is that he really wanted.
Selling is 80% - 90% listening and the rest talking.
Everybody loves a good listener. Your prospect wants to be heard, but if you keep talking he doesn\'t stand a chance. Eventually he will have had enough of you and throw you out of the door, leaving you puzzled as to why he didn\'t buy your wonderful product that would make him so much extra profit.
So how do you find out what it is that your prospect really wants and get him to do the talking? (Don\'t forget that when he is doing the talking he will give you a whole bunch of clues as to what it is about your product that will convince him to buy).
It\'s very simple. In fact it is so simple that if you haven\'t got the idea already, you will kick yourself.
You ASK QUESTIONS. Asking questions is so powerful.
When I text my girlfriend and tell her what I\'ve been doing today, she might or might not reply. If I ask a question, she MUST reply. So I might tell her what I have done and then say "BTW, would you like to go out for a meal tonight?" She might say yes, or she might say no, but she has to say something.
By asking a question it allows you to then sit back and LISTEN to his answer. Let him tell you what it is that would persuade him to buy and then you focus on that.
"Tell me, Mr. Prospect, what do you think is the most important benefit of your blue-fangled graunchopper?"
"Well, I can see that it will make me more money, but the most important thing is that I will save a ton of time and I\'ll get home an hour earlier to spend more time with my kids".
Only now does your thinking shift from how much money he can make to what he REALLY wants which is more time with his kids.
Become a good listener and you will sell far more. Remember - 20% talking (at a maximum) and 80% LISTENING.
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