The Desert of Arizona
Cloudy 71 Degrees
Ever met one of those people that just can’t deal with the uncomfortableness of silence during a conversation?
When they feel they’re in danger of having a silent moment, they jump in with something to say.
In the client business, you don’t want to be one of those people.
There’s this quote I used to hear a lot in the music world from composer Claude Debussy. The quote is this: “Music is the silence between the notes.”
What that means is that the impact of the music has as much to do with how you use silence as it does with how you actually play the notes.
It’s the very same in a selling situation. And I mean when you’re selling anything… a product, a service, maybe even an idea or an opinion.
The person who is unable to deal with silence is at an enormous disadvantage.
Compare these two scenarios…
You have the web designer who is so hoping to get the sale that he just can’t deal with silence. So when the prospect pauses a moment to take a breath, the web designer jumps in with even MORE reasons he’s the right choice. If you’ve ever done something like this, you already know it’s entirely possible to talk your way right out of a sale.
And then you have the savvy web designer. He’s the one that simply looks at the prospect and says, “Tell me what questions you have about working together?” And then he just closes his mouth and waits for the prospect to respond.
There is a lot of money to be found in silence. But you have to learn to use it to your advantage.
The funny thing is, silence can actually make you more attractive. (That’s something we’ll discuss here.) But the first step to doing that is to be OK with it happening. Silence doesn’t mean you jump in and fill it. It takes practice, but once you get it, you’ll be amazed at what you can do with it.