Hey, Scott from The Sales Mastermind here.
Today’s edition can be read in 3 minutes.
Counter-intuitively - Talk less and you’ll sell more.
Top sellers (Closers) listen 57% of the time and talk 43% of the time. While bottom sellers listen 34% of the time and talk 66% of the time.
Credit for graphic: https://www.gong.io/resources/labs/talk-to-listen-conversion-ratio/
Yet the below is what many buying conversations look like (a real call used with the seller’s permission). Seller, top blue line, talking 63% of the time and only listening 36% of the time
(I call this a U-Shaped conversation. It starts and ends well with a 20+ minute monologue in the middle.)
The Buyers Language
In 2012, on a ski lift in Chile, I sat next to a French man. He didn’t speak English, I don’t speak French.
We each knew a little Spanish and had a great chat. That shared language took an awkward 15 minutes and made it fun.
The same thing happens when selling. A “widget” to you, might be a “gadget” to your buyer. If you say widget, they won’t understand.
Giving the buyer space to explain their pains, wants and desires - in their own language - will allow you to have a shared language.
Only once they believe you understand can you move forward.
1 or 2 Key Pains
Think about the last purchase you made, you probably only had 1, or 2, key pains to solve. All the extra bells and whistles were noise.
Your job as a seller is to focus. Hone in on the pains, show exactly how you help and reduce any noise.
When sellers talk too much about about noise, they’re making their job harder. Pushing the buyer away.
Beware the U Shape
A U Shaped conversation is like the call we opened with (seller in blue, buyers in orange):
It involves a good amount of interaction at the beginning and in the end, but the middle is a seller monologue.
Buyers rarely remember what you say, but they’ll always remember how you make them feel.
And the U Shaped conversation feels sales-y. The feeling of being talked AT for 20 minutes is not a buying feeling.
Buyers usually want to be heard more than they want to learn.
If they want to learn, it’s something very specific. Something you’ll miss without a constant back and forth.
The Solution: Get Buyers Talking
The key to getting a buyer talking is just like meeting a friend at a cafe/pub/restaurant; ask great questions. I’ll give two simple examples below and more in next week’s newsletter.
For the first interaction, after your small talk and upfront housekeeping, ask a question that requires a full answer (not a yes or no question).
You: “From our marketing/cold email/cold call/website what do you think we can help you with?”
For each follow up conversation ask “what changed”. Even if you spoke yesterday.
You: “Before we get started, what changed since we last spoke?”
Doing this you’ll set the tone early to have a productive buying conversation.
TLDR Wrap Up
- Listen more and talk less to close more deals
- The buyers language is your shared language
- Focus on 1 or 2 key pains, skip the noise
- Beware the U-Shape
- “What can you help them with” question
- “What changed” question
And that’s a wrap…. If you’re not getting value please consider unsubscribing - no one needs emails they don’t get something from.
Alternatively, if you found this valuable please:
Until next time
SC
PS Next week we’ll go through a surefire way to get your Prospects talking more - The Question Stack™