When I was growing up, one of my favorite T-shirts read, “Sit Down. Shut Up. Hang On.” It was referring to how a passenger should ride in a fast muscle car with a faster driver. Fortunately, all of my close friends made it through those crazy years and we weren’t really as insolent as the shirt implied.

Today, those three steps may be more appropriately, and certainly more professionally, applied to a good sales process.

Sit down. Too many sales people try to sell while standing at a networking event. You’ve seen them. The financial planner pitching the latest high yield variable life product. The realtor telling you about the great new listing that is just perfect for you and your children. Nothing against either industry, but I do not want to hear about it while networking. The goal of networking is to find people who want to meet with you to discuss in detail their wants and needs. Networking is about introduction and beginning rapport. In five years of intense networking, I have never sold an engagement at a networking event. It is not my goal, and it should not be yours. I’ve had people tell me they want to buy what I do, and after we meet, they often do. Selling, or helping someone buy, is done sitting down in someone’s office or at a neutral location, taking the proper time to discover wants and needs and create the value needed for a positive buying decision.

Shut up. Too many sales people talk too much. Here’s a test. At the end of your next sales interview, who is thirsty? If you are thirsty, you talk too much. A good sales interview has the seller talking at most 25% of the time, and 15-20% is better. Stop trying to sell. A prospect does not really want to hear you tell them all about your product or service. They want to hear what it will do for them only as it specifically relates to their situation. The best way to convince a prospect on the value of your product is to have them tell you how much it will help them save time, money, increase sales, reduce scrap, eliminate waste, etc. Ask questions about how they see the product making an impact and then agree with their statements. Even good sales people generate an amount of distrust. When we talk, we are being analyzed. Turn the tables. When the prospect tells me how much time our product will save their engineering department, all I have to do is agree. Prospects prefer the sound of their voice and they believe anything in that voice.

Hang on to every word. Listen intently. Do not miss a word, do not miss the words that are not being said, and do not interpret or make assumptions based on your dictionary. “Our last website was not a good investment, and we are also concerned about your response time.” Wow. There’s at least five issues in that sentence: last website confirms they have had at least one before, good is a subjective term that requires definition, investment indicates that they already see this as an investment rather than an expense, concerned is also subjective and needs to be clarified, and response time needs a definition. One sentence that could provide five minutes of discussion if you ask targeted questions on what you heard. Every subjective word needs to be analyzed. You might also notice that the above sentence did not say they were concerned about price. It said the investment was “not good,” meaning what they got in return was out of proportion. If you want to make a better sale, provide a better outcome and then charge accordingly. But then, pricing is another matter and we can pick that up next month.