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Have you ever noticed how much Americans like to talk? They love to talk, they love to be talked to with their televisions and radios and computers constantly talking, talking, talking. They seem to delegate silence or stillness with those few get back to nature days (and even then, I noticed a kid with a GameBoy the last time I was in the park). There seems to be a fear of silence especially when we're conversing. The spaces in between words feel awkward to us. Someone HAS to be talking or we're simply not communicating effectively (or so it seems). And the worst is in sales, when we've got the product or service sold, and somehow we can't keep our mouths shut and therefore ruin our chances in some cases. We chatter. We fill in the spaces with inane nothingness. I know that my students and those of you in sales are familiar with the cliche persona of the classic sales person who looks around his or her prospect's office and takes note of the photos on the wall or art or whatever, and begins to talk about the husband or wife, how are the kids, what's going on in the golf game, et cetera, and basically chit chats their prospect into non-compliance. The sale was in the bag, but not signed off on, and the odds are dwindling the more they talk. One of my personal breakthroughs, and a big one, happened for me when I realized that I didn't have to spend a whole lot of time in that chit chat mode. When I was just a kid starting out in sales, I can't even count the number of times I totally destroyed the sale by being too talkative. I was consistently derailing my chances. And the more I saw the sale derailing, the more I would talk, nervously, in an attempt to regain the footing I had lost. If a prospect or client was looking for a way out, I would give it to them eventually if I chattered on too long. I kept wondering why they didn't want to be more like my friend, why they didn't want to talk about more personal, day-to-day stuff. I can tell you the reason this is the case is because they weren't getting the answer to a burning question within them. I realize I have been blessed with the gift of gab. The shift in my thinking came when I realized I had to fashion what I was saying to focus intently on the prospect and their needs and not my own agenda. So what is the burning question? The question is, "What can you do for me, Kenrick?" Our prospects are ultimately wanting to know, "What's in this for me? What is it that you're going to do to help me?" The only way to find the answers to these questions is to elicit their criteria and once you've elicited their criteria, then we have to get to the meaning. Criteria and its meaning have got to be the foremost thing in your mind when making a sale, no ifs, ands or buts. Remember this, and you won't be derailed.
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Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of wealthy clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies.
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