“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
third president of the U.S.
Principal author of the Declaration of Independence

Listening is a skill!

Studies consistently show that customers believe sales people talk too much. Even more embarrassing, polls of sales people show that we know we talk too much. But how can we sell more while talking less?

One reason we talk too much is we don’t want to miss a detail the customer might find important, so we overload them with information.

The answer lies in letting the customer speak first. If we probe effectively, they’ll tell us everything we need to know about their problems, and how to solve them. Then, when it’s our time to talk, we can focus our remarks on what we know to be important to the customer, instead of what we think they might want to know. Odds are you’ll speak less while increasing your sales.