The Greek philosopher Epictetus is generally credited with the quote:
 
We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.
 
A useful guide for life, it’s an essential guideline for selling.  The best sales professionals are those who listen well, thoughtfully and consistently, and then target their every word to exactly what the prospect wants (or needs) to hear.  In fact, Epictetus may have understated the need…truly effective strategic sellers probably listen 3 or 4 times more than they speak.
 
This may be the most challenging sales guidance you’re ever given, as most people find it very difficult advice to follow. 
 
Let’s face it, you LOVE your big idea, and you can hardly wait to tell every wonderful aspect of it to whoever will listen.  Or you just know that if the investor really understood your great business concept, she’d write a check as large as you please.  Or, you know how incredibly valuable you are to your firm, and if the management just knew all that you do for them they’d offer a big raise.  Of course you have lots to say, and there is so little time, the temptation to keep talking once you get the floor can feel overwhelming.

In politics the holding of the floor is called a filibuster, and the only result it ever produces is to stall the argument and prevent the vote.  (It’s interesting that the term comes from the early 19th century Spanish and Portuguese pirates, "filibusteros", who held ships hostage for ransom.) In the business of selling, holding the floor until every bit of your story is told has the same non-results…holding your customer for ransom will make them remember you, but not in a way you’d want to be known.
 
Great salespeople not only listen when the prospective buyer wants to talk, they are skilled at getting that prospect to talk more.  They ask insightful open ended questions to better understand the buyer’s values, needs, problems and worries, and then cast the solution they are selling in a way that relates the solutions to the expressed concerns.  When I say open ended I don’t mean without direction; great sales questions of course focus on the problem your solution might solve, the gap you’ll fill, the areas you need to understand to customize your offering.  They just focus on those issues from the customers point of view, not from a product or offering perspective.
 
By open ended I’m referring to questions that solicit more than yes/no answers, questions that draw out the respondent, encourage them to elaborate, open up and tell you more.  Great sellers are great probers, they know how to keep a conversation going by making their conversant the center of the conversation, not by talking at them.
 
These rather simple concepts are actually challenging for many unfamiliar with the practice to implement, so rather than add more thoughts, I’m going to stop and give you an assignment.  If you choose to accept the assignment and send me your thoughts, I’ll use them in future columns to better illustrate the points with real life situations from WorldWIT’s own membership.  If you want to use the assignment simply as food for thought, that’s fine too.
 
Here’s the mission for those who choose to accept it:  Think of a situation in which you have to sell something, (your idea to your team, your value to your boss, a cut in benefits or downsizing to your staff, a business to an investor…use whatever is real for you) and briefly outline that situation in an email.  Make sure you include some info on the person or persons you’ll be selling to; no names, just an idea of their role or position, so we can properly set up the sales situation.  Knowing that I might use your situation as an example in this space, please don’t send any that should not be public, or disguise them so they can’t hurt your position.  I reserve the right to camouflage what you send even further if I am uncomfortable with revealing possible confidences.
 
Once the situation is outlined, think of 4 or 5 conversational probing questions that will open up the conversation, let you know more about what you need to do to sell the concept, or otherwise move the sale forward by listening.  We’ll use your questions to build a really great list of probing questions, so everyone can learn from your situation.  And I’ll offer feedback and fine-tuning on your ideas too, so you get some specific coaching to use in your own selling.
 
As an incentive to send in real life examples, I’ll give an hour of free confidential sales consulting to the WorldWIT member with the most challenging sales situation!  To keep your moderator from being deluged, send your assignments to janet@jmryan.com, and use THINKING ALOUD in the subject line.
 
Can’t wait to see what you send!