One of the greatest questions ever posed came from the movie “Pulp Fiction”.  “Do you listen or wait to talk?”  I think about this often.  Often enough to know that it’s time for everyone to start listening.  There are many ways for a successful startup to get off it’s feet and start flexing it’s muscles, however, the quickest way to sign new business, is by listening.  The best way to keep business, is to listen.  I want to quickly dissect the differences between “waiting to talk” and “listening” for those that may not see the clear distinction.  I want to talk about this from a sales perspective, but since everyone in a startup should be selling at all times, this 100% applies to you.

When one waits to talk, they are doing a number of things wrong.

1. Undermining the prospect.
2. Flexing their ego.
3. Not answering questions appropriately.
4. Not closing nearly enough business.

This is just to name a few.  This will inevitably lead to slower sales cycles, more problems for customer service, and an overall distrust that spreads equally throughout your customer base.  Say goodbye to referrals and hello to cancellations. How many times have you asked someone a question and their answer was so irrelevant that you were left speculating over the attention span of the person on the other end?  One of the biggest problems with someone waiting to talk is that they already have a pre-programmed answer in their brain that isn’t going to change regardless of what the question is.

Can some people get away with this? Absolutely.
Can these people sell? No doubt about it.
Are these people going to be the in the 5% of salespeople that make all the money, and catapult a startup company into contention? Not a chance.

When someone decides to listen, they are doing everything right.

It’s not hard to see why listening to your prospect will do you good. A good salesman let’s the prospect do all the talking, takes meticulous notes and answers every single question to the best of their ability. People in general always want to feel valued.  They want to be taken care of and nurtured.  Our significant others are always telling us that we need to listen better in order to have a successful partnership, right?  Well, this parallels business to a tee.  All you need to do is listen and you will not only earn trust, but you will earn their business. If you can take the extra 5 seconds to stop yourself from jumping the gun, and sincerely listen to your prospect, you will be that piece of the startup that really made it all possible.  You will be the person referred to in the case study.  And best of all, you will be the most sought after salesman on the market when someone has the next great idea and needs it sold.