Once you “Pop the Question” or ask for the business there is only one thing to do.
“SHUT UP”
Say nothing. Let the silence weigh heavy in the air. The first person to speak loses. This may take 10 Seconds or it may take 30, it does not matter. Make sure you are not the first person to say anything.
The psychology here is very simple. As the salesperson you have built the customer up over the last few minutes. You have uncovered all of his needs and you have offered your benefits to satisfy those needs.
The Customer has been convinced by your offer and is letting you know by demonstrating buying signals. You get excited so you summarise the benefits and ask "The Question" knowing that he will give you a positive answer and then there is silence because the customer is thinking about it.
There is no problem for the first few seconds of silence and you spend that time thinking how you will spend the commission but then the silence drags on for 6 seconds and you start to panic. Your mind is buzzing with all the things you have forgotten to tell the customer. After 10 seconds silence you can not stand the pressure and you blurt out some feature or other and blow the sale.
Do Not Panic ................... The first person to talk loses.
This may sound easy on paper but it is not. The problem is that we sales people like the sound of our own voices, in fact we were probably pushed into sales in the first place because we were good at talking. When it comes to silence there is an almost uncontrollable urge to fill the silence with conversation.
This is made worse when you are dealing with professionally trained buyers. Buyers know what happens when you ask for the business so they are trained to be quiet at this time too. This can lead to some interesting periods of silence!
If you ask the ‘question’ and the customer says nothing the salesman often feels the need to re-summarise the benefits or worse, add another feature that has not yet been mentioned. This route invariably ends up in disaster. When you have asked the ‘question’ keep silent. The first person to talk loses.
Try it with your next customer and see how difficult it is. Then try it with every customer and see how much of a difference it makes. You’ll never look back.
After you ask for the business..... SHUT UP! - To learn more about this author, visit Richard Mulvey's Website.
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Richard Mulvey
(Visit Richard's Website)
Richard Mulvey is South Africa's leading
sales author with 12 published books to
his name. In addition he speaks to a
variety of international groups on a
regular basis and over the last 10 years
has challenged over 100,000 business
people to think differently about sales.
Richard is a dynamic speaker and his
controversial opinion will fire your
enthusiasm leaving you with a desire to
hear more and eager to get out there and
do it. To make contact with Richard or to
find out about his training DVD’s Books
and training courses or go to www.bus
iness-skills.co.za.
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Shut Up!
