At your first meeting with a prospect, the prospect should be doing most of the talking. The Sandler approach suggests that the prospect should be talking for about 70% of the time.

Typically, however, for these reasons the opposite tends to occur :

• The prospect's expectations have not been set correctly.
• Prospects have a buying system, step 2 of it involves getting free information, knowledge & expertise from suppliers.
• Most salespeople feel more comfortable talking, rather the asking questions.

Selling has become presenting

Selling requires you to ask thought provoking questions that help the prospect discover the problems they are experiencing, see their world differently and compel them to do something about their situation.

After your next prospect meeting, review how much talking you did. Then take a look at the information you managed to get, it should include; an in-depth understanding of the problems they are experiencing, how much it is costing them, what they have tried to do about fixing it and how committed they are about solving it. Not to mention, a full understanding of their budget and decision-making process.

You can lose a sale by talking too much, but you'll never, ever lose a sale by listening to much. Remember a prospect who is listening, is no prospect at all.

Want to comment? What are your experiences of selling? Do you do too much of the talking?

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