I mentioned in an earlier post why sales people should just shut up and listen.

Once I attended a meeting where my colleague talked 90% of the time, and this was despite us having agreed in advance that we’ll do most of the listening.

While the meeting still met our objectives and we achieved the outcome we hoped for. In my usual post call assessment, I still felt the meeting could have gone better. By listening more and getting the other party to talk more.

Why?

If we had let them speak more, we could have gained a deeper understanding of their challenges, pet projects, grievances, and so on. These nuggets of information help us serve them more, and give us the opportunity to engage with them more frequently without bothering them. The more we learn about their challenges, the more we can add value, which leads to sales success.

If we don’t know what is of value, we can’t add value.

How about you. What is the ratio to you versus your prospects/ clients talking during meetings? If you find you talk more; think of 2 questions you could ask prospects to get them talking, and come back and list them in the comments box below.