Marketingprofs.com posts this fine article – Telling Ain’t Selling. The article is well-written and quotes some fine points from Spin Selling that we are familiar with at Select Metrix. The author provides some wide-ranging references. Check out these excerpts:
Like milking a cow, selling can be a delicate operation. While a customer probably won’t threaten you with a hoof, you’re still faced with the fact that the harder you push, the more pushback you get.
We’re from Minnesota so this simile is well understood. A reference from later in the article:
The ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes had it right when he said, “We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.”
And the closing paragraph:
French philosopher Voltaire was right when he said many centuries ago: “Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”
From milking cows to Greek philosophers to Voltaire, now this is an eclectic author. The thesis of the article can be verified by anyone who has come in contact with a loquacious salesperson. The unskilled salesperson has a tendency to judge the effectiveness of a sales call by reviewing what they themselves were able to pronounce in the sales call. I have seen this approach first-hand and it is ugly. The most effective salespeople are the ones who ask pertinent qualifying questions . . . and then shut up and listen.
This article should be required reading for all salespeople. Please read the entire thing.