Many of us must have had our share of disappointments dealing with a few sales people who have ended their sales pitch without us buying from them. There are many reasons for this; but one most common one is that they talk too much! Generally, we don’t like people who are overenthusiastic, self-centered or simply those who are too pushy. In short, we don’t like talkative sales people!

Gone are the days when sales people were recruited for their “gift of the gap”. The louder they were, the better their chances of getting recruited. Organisations then wanted them because they could “psycho” the audience to buy! However now, the opposite is quite true – so the louder they are, the less they are wanted by both their organisations and customers per se.

You see, customers these days are a lot more discerning than before. Many of them already know what they want even before they make a purchase via the internet. What they want more from sales people is the reliability of their service and lesser on their product knowledge and overbearing behaviour.

So when a sales person rattles on and on, customers can get very irritated and uncomfortable because they want to only know what they want to know. Instead of trying to convince them, clients will be more impressed when the sales people instead are good listeners to what their needs and concerns are. In short, they should be asking good questions to help customers make good buying decisions.

Listening and asking good questions well are two treasured skills that all good sales people cannot have enough of. Organisations thus should put extra effort in to help their sales people master these skill sets because the better they are at that – the more successful they will be in their selling pitch.

Unfortunately, many employers don’t assist their sales staff in order for them to get better in these skill sets but instead – only put their focus on improving their product knowledge and how they can “psycho” customers to buy. Sad to say, this doesn’t and won’t improve their bottom lines. In fact, the longer they delay in mastering the art of a sales pitch, the more disappointed they will be. Customers after all, don’t want to be pressured into buying any more. And, they certainly do not want to feel that they have been sold something that they don’t want to buy!

Essentially, customers want to buy from someone they can trust.

The hard truth is there is an urgent need for sales people to unlearn their old selling style and learn the non-direct way of selling. They have to master the art of being good conversationalists who can connect very well with their customers and to get their highest level of trust. Thus, sales people need to be caring and authentic so that customers can trust them. The best way of displaying these qualities is through their skill sets of listening well and asking good questions.

Sales people who use “high trust selling” are confident people because they know that this show of care and sincerity will go well for them and establish an even strong bond that has already being built between them and the client already. Thus, they do not need to push nor manipulate by trying to “create a need”. Also, these sales people do not need to apply selling pressure on the clients to buy but instead, can wait for the “buying pressure” from the customer who is now impressed and convinced that they have found what they need from a trustworthy sales person.

Thus, the sales pitch is already closed when trust is built as the customer gets more and more comfortable with the sales person.

Essentially, every sales person needs to be always mindful not to talk too much but instead sell themselves first through listening to their customers before they sell their products and services.