The phrase “A prospect who is listening is no prospect at all” couldn’t be more relevant to me as an athlete. Over the weekend we housed a few recruits and we could all tell who would work and who wouldn’t just based on how they talked to us players. If they let us players do all the talking and weren’t engaging with us, we knew they didn’t really want to be here. They were just listening and not actively engaging with the guys he might call teammates one day. They were our prospects and we were the sales-people selling them on playing for us. If we talked their ear off and didn’t get them involved, they’d be overwhelmed and felt left out of the conversation.
The same stands true for marketing. If you talk a prospect’s ear off, there is no chance they stick around. It isn’t even a one-sided conversation. It’s just a presentation at that point. Prospects can get presentations in sales meetings. What salespeople and entrepreneurs and athletes have to do is get to know their prospect and house an even conversation where both sides gets to know more about the other side, and what they can gain from the relationship. Sales shouldn’t be presentations. They should be even conversations with both sides engaging in real dialogue because selling isn’t telling.
BoweryJE22
I agree with you! I love your example from your own experience as an athlete to demonstrate the importance of allowing a prospect to talk. It is very important to have conversations not presentations when discussing a sale.