Do Your Sellers Need to Talk Less to Sell More?
Sales leaders know that sellers need to talk less to sell more. And top solution sellers know what happens when they drone on about themselves and their stuff (i.e., their products, their benefits, and their features) — target client prospects get bored and become emotionally closed to next steps in the buying process or hearing about a new solution.
And yet even though most of us know this to be true intellectually, salespeople still talk too much. According to Gong conversation analytics research of over 25,000 B2B sales conversations, the average B2B sales rep consumes 75% of a call’s talk time speaking rather than listening. They also found that top B2B sellers speak approximately 43% of the time. That is almost 50 percent less than low and average performing sellers.
So why do so many sellers keep dominating conversations with customers, even when they know better? A series of studies conducted by Harvard neuroscientists Diana Tamir and Jason Mitchell can provide an answer.
Let’s Talk About Me
In the first set of studies, the researchers offered volunteers money for answering questions about famous people — for example, to speculate about whether these people were intelligent, enjoyed snowboarding, or liked mushrooms on their pizza. But then the volunteers were given a choice: Instead of answering celebrity questions, they could opt to answer similar questions about themselves — and get paid nothing.
Seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? Just talk about a few celebrities and get paid. But to the researchers’ surprise, that’s not how the volunteers behaved. It turned out that people couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk about themselves, even if it meant no or less money for them.
The study found that, cumulatively, people were willing to forgo 17%-25% of their potential earnings to talk about themselves rather than others. And that’s exactly what happens on sales calls every day. Salespeople unknowingly sacrifice earnings, in the form of commissions and bonuses, for the privilege of talking about themselves.
A Powerful Desire
In a second set of studies, the researchers wanted to discover why this desire to talk about ourselves is so powerful. They used MRI tests to track brain responses while subjects talked about themselves. They found that such talk triggered what’s known as the meso-limbic dopamine system — the part of the brain associated with feelings of reward and satisfaction from food, sex, or money. In essence, we can’t stop talking about ourselves because it feels so good.
The research also found that self-talk is self-perpetuating: The more you do it, the more you want to do it. That’s because this same brain region is also involved in compulsive and binging behaviors.
These studies shed light on why most salespeople in our solution selling training and business sales training workshops talk about themselves more than they think. What happens is that they talk about themselves compulsively, almost without thinking, but then the brain tries to rationalize the behavior. They persuade themselves that the information they’re sharing with buyers is valuable, or that the buyer is hungry to learn more, or that they weren’t really talking that much anyway.
Techniques to Become More Buyer Centric
How can sellers overcome this powerful, automatic urge to talk too much about themselves? One useful strategy is to cultivate habits of speech that force you to stop and pay attention to what you’re saying. Here are three techniques from our microlearning experts to try:
- STOP After 30 to 60 Seconds
On each and every client call, use a stop watch and try to STOP talking after about 30 seconds. While 30 seconds sounds short, it is enough time for one or two impactful sentences and aligns with what our brains can process. Remember 30 to 60 seconds can feel like a long time when you’re listening.
If you do not have a sales tool like Gong to track how you are doing, practice until you get it right. The less you talk, the more receptive your prospects will be to hear what you have to say. - Have Succinct Responses
Most buyers’ brains can really only hold on to three or four things at a time. If you answer a customer’s question with a long soliloquy, you will not be heard nor are you helping your client to make an informed decision that is in their best interests. Answer questions and customer objections briefly and then ask if they have any other questions or concerns before you continue. If customers want more information, they’ll ask.
Trusted sales advisors know that too many words can erode buyers’ trust and interest. - Ask Before Going Deeper
Engaged prospects are more likely to become customers. Having to sit through a long sales monologue is not engaging. When making a point or sharing your unique value proposition, be brief, stop, and ask if the customer would like to you to elaborate.
As with the other techniques, less is more.
The Bottom Line
Most sellers struggle with limiting how much airtime they take up on sales calls. But the research is clear: sellers need to talk less to sell more. Are you helping your sales team to curb this self-defeating sales communication behavior?
If you think your sellers need to talk less to sell more, download Are Your Sales Reps Leaving Money on the Table?