Just Stop Talking - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Just Stop Talking - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career I have recently chosen to not work with a new salesperson from a vendor that Ive worked with for years. Why? They wouldnt stop talking. As much as Id like to learn more about you to develop a long term sales relationship, if youre looking to sell to me, or anyone, youve got a lesson youll need to learn: just. stop. talking. Sales arent successful based on how much product knowledge you have, nor based on how much experience you have. Sales are made based on how well you understand my problem. If you dont know your products well, call me back with a solution based on my needs after doing some research internally. If you dont have experience, that can be overcome easily by inviting an honest dialogue. If you dont stop talking, you dont know me, my company, or my challenges. Without knowledge of my challenges, you have no basis upon which to recommend your products. Heres a great quote from Christopher Penns Awaken Your Superhero Blog about the Most Powerful Sales Technique In The World: Shut up. Yes, that’s the technique. Shut up. I have seen more salespeople lose deals or carve themselves into unprofitability from nervous speech than from any other sales technique failure. Marketers are especially bad at not shutting up. Once you’ve shared some information that should provoke a reaction, learn to keep your speech turned off  (and I say that because it includes text chat, email chains in your inbox, replies on Facebook, and conversations on the phone and in person) and wait for the reaction. Want to achieve new sales success? Just stop talking. Author: Nick Inglis is the Founder/CEO of LeftGen Information Management Group (InformedIM, SolveIM, ClearIM AgentIM), an expert on enterprise software, and is the author of the AIIM SharePoint Governance Toolkit. Nick has worked with companies as diverse as EY, Shell and Canon. Nick is a keynote speaker on the topics of SharePoint, Information Management and Collaborative Technologies.