Here’s a wonderful thought from EXCEPTIONAL SELLING by Jeff Thull.
“Never answer an unasked question.” “It’s easy to scuttle a sale by raising issues that haven’t yet entered a prospect’s head(!). Such behavior usually occurs when you’re so afraid of losing the sale that you begin surfacing and answering objections that exist only in your own paranoid imagination(!). Remember, you can’t read minds, so don’t try(!).”
The ! are mine! This fits perfectly with our ongoing training/urging sales teams at For Impact organizations to:
- Stop making decisions for your prospects.
- Don’t create ‘objections’ for your prospects. You have enough ‘challenges’ without creating new ones that probably don’t exist.
- You are probably the only one who is focused on your organization’s ‘problems’ and ‘issues’. (“paranoid imagination”). Your prospect did not wake up this morning focused on your organization’s ‘issues’!
Again, I love the simplicity of this top sales guru’s rule: Never answer an unasked question!
*Reminds me of that other remarkable ‘rule’ that comes from the legal profession: “Never ask a question you don’t know the answer to.” Bull honkey. Why would you even want to ask a question that you already know the answer to? As anyone who follows For Impact knows, DISCOVERY (ASKING QUESTIONS) is one of the most important parts of any visit/sales call!
View Thull’s Sell Like A Pro: 6 Easy Rules.