Avoid the Chit Chat

By: Kenrick Cleveland

Americans love to talk. Americans also love to be talked to -- listening to the TV or the stereo or talk radio -- anything so that there's no silence. Silence we seem to delegate to those few days a year when we get back to nature. In conversations, especially, there's a real fear of silence, an awkwardness that sort of permeates the in between spaces where there is no one talking and most people will do anything possible to fill up that silence with noise regardless of whether or not it's going to damage their chances of selling their product or service.

We chatter. We fill in the spaces with inane nothingness. I know that my students and those of you in sales are familiar with the cliche persona of the classic sales person who looks around his or her prospect's office and takes note of the photos on the wall or art or whatever, and begins to talk about the husband or wife, how are the kids, what's going on in the golf game, et cetera, and basically chit chats their prospect into non-compliance. The sale was in the bag, but not signed off on, and the odds are dwindling the more they talk.

I personally had a tremendous breakthrough when I realized I needed to keep my mouth shut more often. For someone who likes to talk, that's a tall order. As a young man, i would constantly derail myself over and over in sales situations, by chit chatting them out of the contract. What's worse, when I noticed it derailing, I would talk even more to try to get it back on track. Did it work? No.

If a prospect or client was looking for a way out, I would give it to them eventually if I chattered on too long. I kept wondering why they didn't want to be more like my friend, why they didn't want to talk about more personal, day-to-day stuff. I can tell you the reason this is the case is because they weren't getting the answer to a burning question within them.

I fully accept that I have been blessed with the gift of gab. I will say, however, that the shift in my thinking happened when I realized I had to form what I was saying to focus intensely on the prospect and on what they needed and wanted and not my own agenda.

So what is the burning question? The question is, "What can you do for me, Kenrick?" Our prospects are ultimately wanting to know, "What's in this for me? What is it that you're going to do to help me?" The only way to find the answers to these questions is to elicit their criteria and once you've elicited their criteria, then we have to get to the meaning.

Criteria and its meaning have got to be the foremost thing in your mind when making a sale, no ifs, ands or buts. Remember this, and you won't be derailed.

Article Source: http://www.dxarticle.com

Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of wealthy clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion techniques.

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