Discover the impact of silence in selling

I attended a sales training course a number of years ago and the trainer was talking about closing techniques. I remember he said on several occasions ‘ask for the order and then keep quiet’ he had plastered all over the walls in the training room silence can be golden. I would love to say that I always took his advice and it always worked but that is not really the truth. I, like so many other sales people would ask for the order and as soon as it went silent I would open my dumb mouth again and lose the moment, or worse still I would keep talking and not even ask for the order hoping the prospect would ask me could he buy. Well one thing I can say is that waiting for the prospect to ask to buy does not work, we as sales people must always remember if we wait for the prospect to ask to purchase we will get very hungry. One night I was in a prospects home and it came to the close of the sale, for some reason the words of wisdom I heard previously from this master sales practitioner kept ringing in my ear—silence can be golden. Here I was sitting in front of this prospect, having quoted him for the largest sale I had ever quoted for and I said ‘I will proceed with the order then? The room went silent the husband looked at the wife, the wife looked back at the husband and about 10 minutes later (well it was probably only 2 minutes but felt like 10) just as I was hoping the ground would open up and swallow me, the answer came from his lips---okay where do we sign. You see through sales training course and as a salesperson one of the key things we have to remember is there comes a time in every sale where we have to stop talking and start listening or better still stop talking and wait for the prospect to speak. To be honest it is good advice at any time in the sale to stop talking and start listening it doesn’t only apply to the close of the sale, we as salespeople should remember what we learn from books from experience and from any sales sales training course we may attend, selling is all about asking good relevant questions listen to the answers and then provide solutions to match the clients needs. If one gets good at asking relevant questions and listening to the prospect it is then easy to sell and ask for the order. sales training is of paramount importance when it comes to following the sales process. The professional salesperson will know when it is time to ask questions, when it is time to listen and when it is time to ask for the order and then keep quiet. I am delighted that I remembered the importance of silence at just the right time in the close of that sale, however we all as sales people have to remember it all the time, so from now on in just remember silence is golden.