If you’re like most professional sellers, silence drives you crazy. After all, most of us have been trained to deliver polished presentations to prospective customers … we’ve rehearsed , perhaps been coached and/or criticized; we’ve been taught to “dazzle the prospect with our expertise.” When you’re meeting 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 early days as a Sales Manager, I observed 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.
Here’s are some examples of what I’m talking about:
“May I ask you a question: What are the two or three things that you or your company could do in the upcoming 12 months that would dramatically impact your sales results? (One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand …)
“I mean, if you really thought about it, what’s causing you the most trouble in your sales efforts? (One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand …)
“I’ve been studying a lot about the challenges that salespeople in this industry struggle with these days. They’re really having trouble getting their foot in the door of big companies. Once they’re in, it’s often difficult to get people to change from the status quo. In today’s business climate, corporate decision makers are very risk averse. I don’t suppose that’s the case here? Which of those issues are causing you the most frustration? (One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand …)
“Have you thought about how you could make it easier for you? For example, what specific marketing initiatives would impact your sales results?” (One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand …)
All good questions … unless they are fired one after another without pause. Hopefully you get my point about the continual rephrasing and butting in that many 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 good, provocative question. Decision makers can’t answer it with a simple pat answer. It gets 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.
10 Seconds of Golden Silence
Here’s my challenge to even seasoned sales professionals: After you’ve asked a meaningful question, keep your lips together and count to ten (I think I first heard the term 10 seconds of golden silence in a training session I attended many years ago, so it’s not mine but I love it). You will not believe how hard this is to do. In fact, most can’t do this without hard work and practice. Don’t believe me? Go ask someone a meaningful question right now, stop talking, start counting and see how far you get (and how uncomfortable you become after just 2-3 seconds of silence). You may be surprised just how powerful the desire to speak becomes.
Nature abhors a vacuum … and humans in conversation want to avoid silence. If you embrace this advice you’ll begin to notice that if you can keep silent (no matter how uncomfortable it will become) the other person will resume talking. They get uncomfortable with the silence too, and by allowing them the time to “fill the silence” you allow them the time and opportunity to fully express themselves and in the process you learn more about what is really important to them (a win-win, don’t you think?).
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 full 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. Most sales people focus far too much on what they’re going to say next. Instead, I suggest that you try a bit more silence. Ask a question, stop talking, lean back, and start counting to yourself. Start at “one one-thousand” and keep right on going. If you hit ten one-thousand 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. Nothing will seem harder. You’ll start squirming, dying to start talking, explaining, and/or “educating.” Don’t do it! Keep counting silently to yourself. In my experience, the other party will start talking again (and what they have to say will be important, I promise). One of my most memorable sales calls got me in front of the president of a growing, successful mid-sized firm. While I forget the question I asked, I’ll never forget maintaining eye contact while I sat in silence for 2 minutes, 21 seconds (there was a clock on the credenza behind her desk) until the president finally started talking again. I earned her trust, we signed a contract and worked together for years. I cannot begin to describe to you how incredibly powerful the temptation to fill the silence became. As a result of my silence in this moment I learned a lot more about the president and her vision, which in turn prompted me to ask better, more pertinent questions and uncover the most important issues to her.
If you can refrain from presenting, explaining and/or “educating” your prospective customers, and if you can keep quiet at the right time, they will start talking. You’ll learn a whole lot more. As long as you really listen (with genuine curiosity … the subject of an earlier post), you’ll gather more pertinent information, strengthen your relationships and in the process become a more valued resource. Your partners in dialogue will think you’re smarter, more credible and more caring. And you will develop a deeper, clearer appreciation of the other person’s point of view.
Callahan Development Group 