Whether these infamous words were spoken to you by your parents, a teacher, or a sales trainer, at some point we were all taught a lesson through this expression, “God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason. Listen more and talk less”.
Talking “too much” and not knowing when to “shut up” is one of the most common mistakes made in sales.
As true and profound as that statement normally is, this week, I am going against the grain a bit and suggesting that instead of listening more and talking less, you are going to need to talk a little more than normal to get your clients and prospects to say “Yes“!
Bear with me before you go and say, “He must have ‘lost it’ over the last few weeks”! Hear me out. In normal times I agree, talking less and listening more is nearly always the best recipe for success, but in case you have forgotten, we are in the “new normal”, at least for the time being.
Continuing from our last ENS on Sales topic, Ideas and Plans = Courage, we know that as you return to the streets and start making presentations, you will be greeted with a different tone. That tone will be the sound of hesitance, stalling, reluctance, fear, anxiety, and trepidation, just to name a few!
Talking more does not mean rambling on about things that are not important. What it does mean is being prepared to go deeper than you potentially normally go. Be prepared to answer more questions and objections. This means you will need to be better prepared with testimonials, facts, and words of assurance. Instead of accepting the client’s first or second “no”, be willing to go the extra mile to explain that advertising is the right thing to do, all while answering their objections and calming their fears.
With all this said, there is another old expression that needs to be adhered to which is, “Don’t win the battle, but lose the war”. We are in business-to-business sales and there is always tomorrow!
The moral of this story is not to talk more, but rather, be more prepared. In the near future, it’s going to take better ideas, better proposals, better presentations, and a little more talking to get your clients and prospects to say, “Yes“!
