This is one tip you'll need to master if you want to maintain control of the sales process.

I was on a sales call with a sales partner. We were sitting across from the client on this particular event and my sales partner asked a question of our client. Before the client had time to answer, the sales rep then proceeded to answer the question himself. And after answering the question, he waited for a few seconds and then made a follow-up statement. And after that statement, he made another follow-up statement.

Overall, he spoke for more than six minutes after asking the client a question. The client, however, never said a word during that time. And we never learned anything about the client's problem while my sales partner was filling the silence.

I once performed an exercise with this particular sales partner. We were having a friendly discussion, and at a particular point, he asked a question. I stopped myself from answering, smiled and said nothing. To my amazement, my sales partner started speaking again, to clarify his question and his statement.

After speaking for another minute and a half, he paused. I smiled and said nothing. And I was amazed when he started clarifying again after a few seconds.

I was able to keep him going for 20 minutes simply by smiling and saying nothing.

One of the biggest challenges some sales reps encounter in their sales process is getting comfortable with silence. When you ask a question, refrain from answering the question yourself or from trying to clarify the question to your client.

Instead, ask the question and let your prospect or client answer the question while you take notes and observe what they are doing.

Resist the temptation to show off how good you are, or to make yourself feel comfortable by jumping in with a comment. This is their time.

If you can fight the temptation within yourself to fill the silence and the need to show how good you are, then you can gain control over the silence during your sales call. And if you can gain that kind of control over your own need to fill the silence, you can actually leverage everyone else's need to fill that silence

I am told that human beings were gifted with two ears and one mouth, which means that we should be listening twice as much as we talk. Put another way, we need to listen more and talk a lot less.

Get comfortable with silence before going on your client interviews. Control this urge to fill the silence and you'll maintain control over the entire sales process.

About the Author: Larry Prevost is an instructor and an IT consultant for Dale Carnegie Training of Ohio and Indiana.


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