If you’ve been in sales for three days, you’ve heard the term “You have two ears and only one mouth for a reason. You should listen twice as much as you speak.” This concept is almost universal in the world of business-to-business sales.
Sales trainers and managers frequently give feedback that sounds something like “I heard your voice much more than theirs”, and “You didn’t give them a chance to be heard.” At Vector Firm, we have an entire class called Bionic Listening, in which we go beyond the active listening techniques taught to most salespeople and present some radical ideas to help our clients focus in this distracting world. Listening is that important. But like many other things, I believe sales leaders and trainers are teaching lessons meant for the 1990’s to salespeople in the 2020’s. Listening is important, but many times during the selling cycle, talking is more important.
There are a few reasons for this...
In today’s b2b buying environment, great salespeople position themselves as subject matter experts by sparking thoughtful and engaging dialogue. A salesperson that simply gathers information doesn’t create a perception of value, and often wastes their customers’ time. To become perceived as a subject matter expert, a stimulating conversation in which the salesperson and customer – including multiple contacts – go back and forth, digging deeper and deeper into the root of problems. Yes, questions typically start these smart conversations, but shutting up the whole time simply lets you know about the information that the customer already knows. If your customer hasn’t learned anything, then you’ve done nothing for them.
Customers are prepared to answer the typical probing questions and will give you the same canned responses they gave your competition yesterday. If you don’t challenge them with unique questions and educate them on other relevant scenarios, then they’re going to stay at the surface where price is the biggest criteria for decisions. Push them to go deeper. Along the way, they’ll learn about their real situation and understand that you’re different and better than others.
And finally, you should be good enough to accurately assume their core issues and drive the conversation there without asking those boring probing questions. It’s at the core that the great ones win regardless of price. If you come in and say “I’d like to ask a few questions” without giving anything back, then you’re simply processing a quote. That’s it.
In conclusion, asking probing questions and listening are extremely important, but that doesn’t mean that salespeople should be silent. In today’s world, great salespeople spark dialogue, they don’t simply shut up and facilitate a Q&A session.
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