How do I sell if I'm not supposed to talk?

OK we have had a comment on previous entry from rme3, who asks:

Hi Tony, they say good sales is about listening more than talking how can I sell if I don't talk? Your advice is to stay away from product features, but how do I focus on needs when often times the customers do not know what they want exactly or how they want to apply the product/services?

Well that is the common mis-conception. That selling is about talking. Selling is about getting people to buy. And they don't buy when you are talking, they buy when they are talking or thinking about the emotional drivers for taking action and getting benefit from using or having your product or service.

You say that often times people don't know what they want or how they want to apply the product or service. Quite right. That is often the case.

By asking really good questions, you help them with their thinking process and they get more clear on what their problem is, and how much they need to solve it.

As they get more clarity, they start to tell you exactly what the problem is they need to solve and their preferred way of solving it.

There is a whole lot more to say on this, so I am going to write a longer article on the main newsletter, Tony's Opinions for you. Thanks for the question.

One of the reasons I developed our advanced sales masterclass The Customer Coach is to teach sales people how to do that questioning and listening process very effectively.

So give it a try. To get a guide for this listen in in July to Positive Business Minutes on 938 Live (yes newsradio is rebranding itself, sounds interesting) .

I am doing a series of 25 PBM on the top 25 problems sales managers and sales people have told us they have. If you miss any you will be able to download the mp3 file from our website in a few weeks time.

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Good Selling

Tony