Joe Girard's 13 Essential Rules of Selling: How to Be a Top Achiever and Lead a Great Life by Joe Girard

Author:Joe Girard [Girard, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Published: 2012-10-22T14:00:00+00:00

Look Like a Listener

Perhaps the most important thing about listening you should remember is, silence is golden. Ask for the order, then remain quiet until your prospect speaks first. The more you sell at the wrong time, the smaller your chances are of closing the deal at the right time. We’ll be discussing this in a lot more detail in Chapter 11, “Lock Up Every Opportunity.” For now, the thing to remember is that no matter where you are in your career—whether you’re a seasoned veteran or just starting out—you must first learn to listen if you’re going to be successful.

This advice doesn’t apply only to people in sales, either. I don’t care if you’re a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, a plumber, an electrician, or someone who works on the assembly line. Your ability to listen will become evident in the way you understand and follow instructions as well as solve problems. Before long, that skill and ability (or lack of) will quickly identify WHO YOU ARE to those who work with you. If you’re not listening or paying attention, you’ll quickly find yourself on the path to nowhere.

I remember a meeting I had with a remodeling designer who came over to our house to discuss some custom work I wanted done on my home to enlarge and enhance a particular area. My wife and I were very specific about what we wanted, right down to the materials for the walls and floors. After he heard what we told him we wanted, he immediately started to tell us what he thought we should have. He just kept talking and talking. It was as though he hadn’t heard a single word we said. I thought maybe he was going to tell us there was a structural problem in our idea or that we would get some great savings by picking a special package he was offering. Nothing like that happened at all.

Although he had a good reputation in the area, I honestly didn’t know what to make of his comments. It turned out what he was proposing was not only going to cost more but also wasn’t anything like what we were looking for—two strikes if Girard is umpiring this.

I explained to him again that’s not what we just told him we wanted. He grew impatient and said that we’d be better off if we followed his idea since he’d done this particular design many times. That comment irritated me quite a bit. I didn’t want to pay extra for what was easy for him. I wanted a unique custom look for our home. Period. Girard called him out—that was strike three!

Three things happened because he didn’t listen:

1. He lost the sale.

2. I couldn’t give him a recommendation to any of my friends and family.

3. We were back to square one looking for a new supplier (which we eventually found and are very happy with the results).

If you’re one of those people who doesn’t listen or pay attention because you

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