Received this success story from a reader who is a medical sales exec. He had just read an article I published on the 5 Mistakes Sales People Make. His lesson was from mistake #1–Shut Up And Listen.

“I attended a trade show recently where I worked our booth for several days. I flatter myself as being a “seasoned problem solving pro”, however, after two days of constantly “throwing up” on customers with the features and benefits of my product, I read your article and changed my approach for the final day of the meeting. 

It was unbelievable what problems I discovered when I closed my mouth and opened my mind to their problems. With just asking the simple question, “how do you see this helping you?” a totally different dialogue emerged where the prospect identified problems they were having in how they were currently doing things. The prospect felt better about telling me the truth- no pressure from me. I felt much better because I discovered problems that I never knew our prospects were having. Lesson learned – sales will follow when problems are solved.

Well done. We hear this all of the time…our ego gets in the way of the prospect buying. Selling is simple. Don’t screw it up by overdoing it!