Of all of the skills a salesperson can develop, what is the single most important skill? Can you guess?
Cold calling?
Closing?
Presenting proposals?
A firm handshake?
None of the above.
So what is it? What is the single most important skill a salesperson can have? Mark Fitzgerald from Sandler Sales said it best:
“The seminal skill of the salesperson is to get the prospect talking.”
Amen, Mark.
Of all the things a salesperson can master, it’s the ability to get and keep the prospect talking that ultimately determines how successful they will be. There are a lot of factors that influence how willing someone is to open up and talk to you, but for the most part, it comes down to a very basic and often overlooked skill:
The ability to ask good questions.
There is a right way and a wrong way to ask questions. When done the right way, questions can help you control the flow of the conversation and move you towards your ultimate goals with the prospect. Done incorrectly, and you can end up talking yourself right out of an opportunity.
More on how to ask good questions in a later post. For now, spend some time role playing your call script and analyze how much of the time you spend talking versus asking questions and listening. I would suggest that anything less than a 2 to 1 ratio in favor of listening over talking needs improvement.
MRC
PS – we cover specific sales strategies like question-based selling in MSP Coach.
