Sep 27, 2016
This is such a loaded subject for me! I experienced this strange 'encounter' that really wasn't an encounter, per se, but an over hearing! Okay, you gotta listen, obviously to get what I'm talking about...
But here's the gist of it all. I was sitting in a coffee shop answering emails on my iPad when my very excellent hearing started picking up on a conversation across the room. Oh yeah, quite a distance away. Unbeknownst to this man, or he didn't care, everyone could hear him.
You could hear him 'pitching' this poor man accompanying the seat next to him on one product or service after another. The guy never took a breath! He just kept pitching statistics, showing samples, bragging on all that it was doing for him and on and on and on!
I just kept wondering, when are you going to stop talking and let this guy ask a question, or wait, whoa, better yet, when are you going to start asking questions??? I mean how did he know one single thing he was talking about was even what this guy needed.
True, I wasn't there from the moment they came in, but I could tell this guy couldn't follow half of what he was talking about. Not only was he loud in his pitching he was on hyperbole speed tongue movement! I was feeling this wind across my face as he was whipping out his pitches!
Whew! So with that bit of exaggeration, I am not exaggerating how important it is to first learn about your prospect. What is important to her or him? What will help their business? Never ever asking a question just sends such huge signals about it being about the sale and not about them.
I will never know how any of this proceeds, but I know for me, had I been in that seat I would had to ask him to stop! It did not appear his guest was so much bedazzled by him, but more like stunned like a deer in the headlights.
Passing On A Smile and asking questions,
Gail