Oftentimes, the vast majority of people will strive for clarity, reduction of tension, and transparency in conversations, leading them to ask and answer a variety of questions that may have been asked or left unsaid. This tendency, however, can prove to be to a person’s disadvantage. Not only can answering an unasked question create an undesirable selling situation, as you lose some leverage or expose critical information but in addition to that, answering the unasked question can lead to confusion on the part of the client prospect. Instead of answering questions on the part of a salesperson, it can be their advantage to do their best to ignore the urge to answer a question and instead ask follow-up questions to continue to assess the needs of the customer. By striving to provide the best information possible by asking a clarifying question as opposed to providing a potentially clarifying and probably confusing answer, you create value for the client in a way that you couldn’t otherwise. The most effective salesperson is the one who listens more than they talk, when the customer feels valued, then the sale will follow.
By guentterjj21
BoweryJE22 One thought on “Never Answer an Unasked Question”
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Answering an unasked question can definitely lead to confusion. It also makes the salesperson appear to not care about the client. The client may start to think that they are only focused on the sale and not the person. Salespeople who just rattle off all the featured of a product or service are usually the ones who answer unasked questions because they are so focused on explaining the product rather than what the clients need is.