Silence can help your business grow

Have you ever sold anything?

Didn’t it feel great? Getting that sale. Closing that deal. It was exciting. It meant you had confidence, that you were persuasive. I bet you could sell snow to eskimos.

I’ve had an interesting relationship with sales. At one point I was in a typical Boiler Room, trying to sell that proverbial snow. For weeks no one bought. But we were on a basic commission deal. I could eat if I didn’t sell. Just about.

And then I started selling. I wasn't trained (who is ‘trained’ in selling?) but I picked up a few tricks from some of the old guys who seemed to have been sitting at their desks for years. I stood up when I pitched on the phone. I kept my voice clear.

I smiled when I spoke. It helped.

I sold a lot and even won a few sales competitions. But after a little while I became bored with the numbers game.

Sales is a numbers game. It is simply illogical to think everyone wants to buy what you’re selling. Even the big brands that we buy phones from or surf the Web with have a sales division or two. They are all selling something. And not everyone wants to buy from Google.

There was one key trick I learnt when selling all those years ago that I think still holds a lot of weight. This one thing something that everyone can benefit from hearing.

If you do this one thing, it cuts down those odds very quickly. You won’t sell every time to everyone, but you’ll definitely sell more.

The sound of silence

Silence speaks volumes. It really does.

Cliches aside, being quiet when a prospect really wants you to say something kicks off a whole ton of amazing in the situation. When they say something like ‘I can’t afford it’, or ‘I’m not interested’, by remaining quiet you make them want to fill in the gaps. And it really works.

In fact, this is the first real tip that I learnt while working in that boiler room. Of course, I understood about smiling when talking, and moving around to keep the energy flowing (quite vital if you're pitching on a phone), but I didn't hear about the value of silence until one Friday night, when the Sales Team manager asked me over to his desk.

‘Just stop talking when you hit a wall. Let it breathe.’

That was all he said. He demonstrated it the next day. Every now and then we would all be allowed to huddle around his desk when he was about to close a deal.

Check out this scene from Boiler Room. It’s pretty much just like that.

Silence at work...

I tried it with a few of the calls I made that same day. I didn't get any deals. But what I did get was a calmer, more structured approach. I didn't feel like I was selling. When I faced an objection, I simply closed my eyes and counted to three in my mind.

It wasn't amazing that first day, but I was allowed by the prospects to send them material, and call them back (as it happened, most of them were there when I called back, which is unusual in telesales).

As time went on I followed the silence rule. At my peak (I became what is known as a ‘top producer’, but only for about a week) the silence I brought to the conversation allowed me to sell on discount (better than no sale at all), up sell a previous client and, best of all, get the biggest deal my sales team had seen in weeks.

If you sell at all, either as an entrepreneur yourself or as part of a sales team, try silence with objections. At the very least, you will experience fewer dead ends. Prospects hate silence. And the fact that you’re able to be quiet takes away any desperation in your voice.

Take it further

Life isn’t just about selling. Business isn’t either. We know that selling helps businesses grow, but use the three second of keeping your mouth shut rule for negotiations for example, and you’ll see how powerful it is. Or when talking to your team during a presentation.

Silence is powerful. Not enough businesses use it effectively.

The moral here? There is no moral. No hard and fast rules in business. Variables will always come and bite you in the you-know-what at some stage.

But when it comes to growing your business, I’ve heard worse advice than what that sales manager told me.

Just stop talking when you hit a wall. Let it breathe.

In other words, shut up, already.