Stop Interrupting - You Don't Know What The Customer Needs!

When my kids were little I decided I wanted to join a gym. I toured several and after taking my kids with me, I realized something: I did NOT want to join a gym with a pool.

You would think a pool would be a great feature, but the truth was, I had no plans to swim. I just wanted to get in and get out and didn't have the time in my life at that moment for anything else. I could just picture it: the kids would see a pool, get all excited and demand to go swimming and then it would be a big fight when I had to drop them off in the nursery.

So, during my tour at this one particular gym, I asked if they had a pool and started to explain my thought process. The tour guide interrupted me and excitedly started showing me their brand-new pool. It was right on the way in. Fail. My kids would see it every time.

I didn't join that gym, but found out later that there was a separate entrance. If my tour guide just would've let me finish my sentence, she would've been able to give me the information I needed and the outcome would've been very different.

Customers tell me they HATE being interrupted, and it happens a lot. I don't think it's usually on purpose. We, as sales reps, just get excited when we think a customer is interested in one of our cool features and we THINK we know what they want.

But we may not. It was fair for the tour guide to assume having a pool would be a cool feature. But for me, it wasn't. We have to listen, REALLY listen to them. Only then can we share what we have to offer.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!