The art of asking: why the best salespeople talk less

There’s one reflex that costs salespeople more deals than any competitor: starting to talk. The customer hasn’t finished describing the problem and already the benefits, numbers and references are flying at them. Yet the strongest thing the salesperson holds in that moment is a question — and the silence after it.

The number that stings

Gong went through hundreds of thousands of sales calls and found that the most successful salespeople talk only 43% of the time. The average, over 65. Most people are convinced they’re listening — until they hear their own call played back. We talk more than we think, and with every extra minute we take the space where the customer would have told us what they need to hear.

Questions that open

Not every question is equal. “How many branches do you have?” is an interrogation. “What happens if that order is late again?” opens things up. In his research for SPIN Selling, Neil Rackham showed that winning calls contain more questions about the consequences of a problem — not about facts, but about what the problem is doing to the company. With those, the customer names out loud why they should solve it. And that’s half the sale.

Silence isn’t awkward

After a good question comes a pause. A weak salesperson can’t bear it and answers it themselves. A strong one waits. Chris Voss, a former FBI negotiator, advises letting the space work for you — in silence, a person fills in what they’d otherwise leave unsaid. The three seconds you hold beat the three minutes you’d spend talking them round.

How to practice it

You don’t have to change your personality. One rule for the next call is enough: after every statement you make, ask a question, not another claim. Then stay quiet until the customer finishes. It sounds simple. Holding to it is a whole discipline.

A good call starts with knowing where you left off last time — Lemnio reminds you before you pick up the phone. Try it free.