Rule # 1 in Sales: Sell more by shutting your mouth
The super simple rule every sales person must know
The first rule you better learn in sales is… NO PAIN, NO GAIN. If you can’t identify the pain your prospect is experiencing then you’ll never gain them as a customer or earn a penny by relieving that pain.
Make no mistake, the only reason people will ever buy your product or service is that they believe it will alleviate their pain or give them pleasure. Note that I said “their pain” and not “their company’s pain”. People care about themselves first. Period. End of story. Yeah, most want to do right by the company they work for, but when you tap their personal pain you win.
Nobody cares about you
The biggest mistake I observe salespeople making is they become experts on all the features and benefits of their product or service, then the first thing they do when talking to a prospect is vomiting all this stuff on them.
Guess what? Nobody cares about you, your product or service, or all the awesome bells and whistles you can provide, even if they are awesome.
Nobody wants to be sold!
The key is to approach every conversation as a mission to get your prospect to tell you what hurts. That’s it! Seriously. If you can master this art form then you will put yourself ahead of 90% of the competition.
Why? Because most people never even try to identify their prospects’ pain. They skip this crucial step and go straight into sales-pitch-vomit mode. But nobody wants to be sold!
As the owner of an energy consulting business, I’m easy to find so I get calls daily from people that want to sell me stuff. It almost always goes like this. I answer and as soon as we get past hello they start their pitch.
“Mr. Newbern, I’m with XYZ company and we can do this or that for your business”. Click. I’m gone. I can tell in the first 10 seconds they’re delivering the same pitch they give all day long and I just won’t make time to listen to another pitch.
How do you get people to buy your stuff?
So if nobody wants to be sold, how do you get people to buy your stuff? You find the pain then offer to relieve it in an honest and genuine way. The only way to identify pain is by asking good questions. If you’re talking to a qualified prospect, you should ask as many questions as you can get them to answer without being annoying.
When a prospect starts talking, you shut your damn mouth
This is key. People love to talk about themselves. Get them to talk for long enough and they will tell you what hurts. And if they truly have ZERO pain that you can alleviate, you can cross them off your list and stop wasting time chasing a dead lead.
Become a ninja at starting conversations
You close sales by effectively conveying to a prospect that you understand exactly what hurts and your stuff will make it stop hurting. It’s just that simple. Become a ninja at starting conversations and asking the right questions in the right order.
Become a strategic listener
Then get really good at presenting your product or service in a way that directly addresses a prospect’s stated pain AFTER they have told you exactly what hurts.
Knowing when to shut up and listen
I’ve been training salespeople for my organization for almost 20 years and I’ve seen countless individuals find success primarily because they took this lesson to heart from day one. They aren’t the best at pitching our services, but they became extremely good at asking questions, getting people to talk and knowing when to shut up and listen.
I often see experienced salespeople fall into a rut and one of the first things I do is figure out if they’ve stopped focusing on asking the right questions. This is often the case and just being reminded about it will get them back on track.
Master pain identification and the rest becomes so much easier
The great thing about this rule and all the skills required to be great in sales is that in almost everything we do, we are selling. Whether it’s convincing an investor to give you money, recruiting talent or persuading your local government, you are selling!
Whether you are effective or not in any situation will depend heavily on how well you identify the pain before you even start your pitch. Master pain identification and the rest becomes so much easier.
