“If the Good Lord wanted us to talk more than to listen, he would have given us two mouths instead of two ears.” – Mark Twain

How many times do salespeople talk themselves out of a sale?  Hmm, let me count the ways.

Business consultants and executive coaches with their innate desire to help people offer a lot of free advice to demonstrate they have listened as well as to showcase their own expertise. This is based upon what I believe has become a shaky premise.

Other salespeople just talk too much and fail to actively listen. They are so busy making their sales pitches they ignore the voice of the customer as I noted in yesterday’s posting.

Then there are those salespeople who are so in love with their solutions, they believe everyone should be. This drinking from the Kool-Aid is another way to talk one’s self out of a sale.

Much of the sales training revolves around asking a lot of open-ended sales questions. What happens in many instances is the salesperson ends up sounding like a rapid-fire Gatling Gun.

Mark Twain, among others, is noted for saying, “If the Good Lord wanted us to talk more than to listen, he would have given us two mouths instead of two ears.”

Active listening is an essential sales skill if the goal is to increase sales. Knowing when to shut up is another sales skill that is, for the most part, ignored in many sales training programs.

If you want to increase sales, maybe consider how you have been talking yourself out of a sale.