Why Shutting Up Makes You a Better Salesperson

Selling involves a lot of talking. Just consider the jargon. If communication weren’t crucial,  words such as elevator pitch, sales talk, catch phrase, winning script and brand messaging wouldn’t dominate the conversation. But they do — simply because in sales, you have to make calls, write proposals, do presentations, tell your story, negotiate terms and convince prospects every single day.

Yet given its tremendous importance, talking your way into a prospect’s good graces doesn’t always work. In fact, the math behind selling suggests the opposite: Talk less, listen more to close more sales deals.

Why the irony? Here are some figures to think about:

Sales guru David Sandler believed that the ideal sales conversation would have the prospect and the salesperson speaking 70% and 30% of the time, respectively. Never the other way around. A sales professional who dominates the talking game rarely becomes a top performer because the focus of such conversations rests on either the product or the seller — not the customer. Too bad, it is the process of finding out and solving the customer’s pain point which really makes the sale. It’s unclear how Sandler got his figures but his sales conversation formula appears to be working for many of its adherents.

A sales analytics and enablement company found that listening more helps you sell more. They have solid evidence to prove their conclusion. Gong Ltd. harnessed the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and empirical data to parse nearly 26,000 actual B2B sales calls and discover the sweet spot between speaking and listening. The data-driven insight puts the golden ratio at 43:57, where sales reps spend 43% of the engagement time talking and 57% listening. In the study, this talk-to-listen ratio generated the “highest yielding” conversations. Sadly, most sales reps take up 65% to 75% of each call talking.

The benefits of talking less

Shutting your mouth to sell more certainly sounds counter-intuitive but the reasons become clearer once you analyze the sales process.     

Sales communication involves getting your message across. But that paints only a half-finished picture. You’re not the only one who has a message after all. Your customers have one too. And that message is likely far more important to them than the one you trained countless hours to convey.

That means you need to develop trust, rapport and genuine concern for people to establish an environment where true conversation can occur — one where prospects and openly share all their concerns. Only then can you hear, understand and act upon their message.  

If you allocate more time and effort in actively listening to your prospects, the benefits accrue. The most obvious include:

1. You differentiate your brand. By talking less and actively listening more, you help create the impression that you are a cut above the rest who merely blabber and recite a script about this or that product. Moreover, you also highlight a key similarity: just like your customers, you also feel that “salesy” talk is inauthentic and disrespects your audience’ intelligence.   
2. You gain important knowledge and actionable insight. The more your customers speak, the more pertinent information you gain. This may include insight about their challenges, goals, operations, budget and decision making process. It may even include something important that the customer initially did not plan to share. Regardless, the more information you have about a customer, the more unique value you can deliver. 
3. You have less opportunities to make stupid mistakes. By limiting your talk time, you also limit your odds of committing blunders. Some blunders are benign and funny, some are serious, and a few are absolute showstoppers. It’s a lot better to just rein in your tongue and lend your ears than to say something that confuses your client or will make you regret sharing later on.
4. You make prospects feel respected and valued. When you give genuine attention to people, they feel more comfortable sharing ideas, describing their needs or giving unsavory but truthful feedback. In a sales paradigm, granting customers a channel to articulate their concerns to people who are tasked to listen sends the message that the company/brand cares for and values them.
5. You earn utmost attention when it’s your time to speak. People often reciprocate gestures and emotions. When you start a conversation by showing respect and actively listening, prospects tend to return the same treatment. They will listen to you when you describe their pain points and when you present your product as an effective solution to their unique challenges. Since conversion almost always entails full engagement, this benefit is key to closing deals.

Improve your listening skills and get prospects to talk more

Knowing that listening more makes you a better salesperson is one thing. Honing your active listening skills is another. Here are some simple steps that will help improve your listening skills and elevate the conversation:

1. Be genuinely concerned about people’s well-being and seek to understand where they’re coming from.
2. Ask open-ended questions that will help draw out the prospect’s pain points.
3. Focus (re: actively listen) on what your customers are saying, not on which script you need to recite next.
4. Keep your share of the conversation clear and concise.
5. Take notes.
6. Use the prospect’s name occasionally, especially when you are about to say something important.
7. Slow down whenever the dialogue becomes intractable.
8. Avoid interrupting prospects when they are talking. If you must, show respect when you need to interject a salient point or detail into the flow of ideas.
9. Regularly confirm or clarify vague points by paraphrasing your prospect’s statements. Always aim to describe their problems better than they do.
10. Summarize and recap the conversation and highlight your call to action whenever applicable.

Articulating your message is central to selling success. But in the light of empirical evidence, sales professionals should redefine a host of terms and practices to include the prospect’s vantage point.

“Sales talk” might mean the way you communicate your product’s benefits but it should also consider what your customers are actually saying. After all, sales reps don’t own the talk time. Customers do.

“Communication” might mean describing how your service solves the customer’s problems. But it should also mean shutting your mouth and opening your ears most of the time to establish a meaningful conversation about their problems.

By Nestor Gilbert

Nestor Gilbert is a senior B2B and SaaS analyst and a core contributor at FinancesOnline for over 5 years. With his experience in software development and extensive knowledge of SaaS management, he writes mostly about emerging B2B technologies and their impact on the current business landscape. However, he also provides in-depth reviews on a wide range of software solutions to help businesses find suitable options for them. Through his work, he aims to help companies develop a more tech-forward approach to their operations and overcome their SaaS-related challenges.