Never Answer an Unasked Question

Picture this: you’re a salesperson at a great company that sells top quality pens and have a sales call coming up. You’re in the meeting with the customer and start with “how are you,” and “where are you from?” These are good first questions and it seems like your customer is enjoying your presence and is relaxed from their body language and responsiveness. You then start talking about the qualities of your company’s pens, how they are made with the most eco-friendly plastic, they never clog or leak, and how the ink is sourced directly from some remote island that you can’t pronounce. All of a sudden, your customer seems confused, thrown off, and disinterested in what you are saying. What went wrong?

Your sales call started off well by greeting the customer and being friendly, but your first big mistake was starting to talk about the product before the customer even mentioned it. In the sales market, there are three parties: the salesperson, the customer, and the product. Professor Sweet says your sales objective is to “present a solution directly related to their stated and perceived needs,” and by only focusing on the sale and the product, you are ignoring what the customer wants and how they feel about the product. This is known as answering an unasked question. If someone never even asked about your product, or details about it, then why would you answer? Overtalking is another big problem that a lot of salespeople fall prey to, and it goes hand in hand with answering questions that were never even asked. When this happens, the customer can feel like they are being ignored and not having a true conversation. The conversation will feel one-sided, and it might come across like you are just there for a sale.

Instead of only talking about how fantastic your fancy pens are, focus on your customer and what they want. The big thing in sales is to find out your customer’s pain and what they need and how you can help. Answering an unasked question does the opposite and it can cause other problems like deflecting attention away from core issues, introducing confusion, and it may delay a buying decision. So, when you are in a sales call, listen to your customer and see what they want and if you really are a good match for their needs. If not, that’s okay because you have represented your pen company well and provided a positive sales experience.