cleaning up sales vomit is difficult!

*sigh* sales vomit is harder to clean up than actual vomit. ~ inside salesperson (name withheld to protect the guilty)

Granted I burst out laughing.

As I was laughing I did realize she was right.

If you give too much information, you are violating a whole bunch of sales 101 best practices.

* you’re not asking questions
* you’re not listening
* you aren’t learning what is important to the prospect

I could go on.

So what do you do? You’re STILL on the call where you’ve just sales vomited.

Containment sometimes there is a little voice in your head telling you to shut up. LISTEN TO IT. Stop talking (even if it’s mid sentence) – take a breath.

Clean-up now smile. YES, I said smile. The first step to cleaning up the mess you’ve made of the call is to admit it. Need a couple of ideas?
> I’m sorry – I get excited about all the things we COULD do and didn’t stop to ask you any questions…
> Well that was a lot of information to dump on you…

Conversation Ask an open ended question! I actually have a list of question strings for myself that I can use when I’m in a pinch. Here are five that might help you if you’re cleaning up your own mess:
> Please describe…
> Please explain…
> Compare for me how you…
> To what extent…
> Give me an idea of how…

Of course, the best thing is to have a plan and not vomit in the first place…