The #1 reason why your prospect said no sale

 Your big mouth.

It's sales 101.  Listen.  Ask questions.  Listen some more.  But we all know that in most selling situations, it's hard to shut up.  You have so much to say.  You're so good at your job.  Your case study is so compelling.

So you just talk, and talk and talk some more.

Long time readers of this blog know I have an incredible respect for the smarts found at RainToday.com.  Excellent articles, time-worthy webinars and insightful research and reports.  In their recent benchmark report, How Clients Buy 2009, there's lots to chew on. You can download an excerpt of the report here: http://www.raintoday.com/HCBexcerpt.cfm.

But here's the chart and summary that really stopped me cold.

According to the report:  “Service provider did not listen to me” is the most widely experienced problem faced by 38% of professional services buyers. Additionally, 55% of buyers said they would be “much more likely” to consider hiring the provider if they listened better.

Holy cow.  Everyone is in a panic about how to get more sales and there's the answer right in front of us.  Shut up.  Listen.

And it you add up the didn't listen and the talked too much….that's 63%.  2/3rds of your sales calls are being wasted because you talk too much.

What do you say about that?