The Importance of Shutting Up!

While I talk and write a lot about learning to listen, the importance of shutting up takes that concept to another level.

Many entrepreneurs and business leaders—myself included—are excited about their product or service. And we should be! As a result of our excitement, though, we may have a tendency to just want to talk about it endlessly, especially to our prospective customers or other leadership team members and employees. The problem is, it’s very hard to listen when we’re running our mouths!

If we don’t shut up and listen to what our audience needs then, I’m tellin’ you now, we won’t be able to serve them. If we push our product, service, or message, we’re going to lose the very people we’re trying to communicate with. It’s likely we’ll be perceived as just another pushy salesperson who doesn’t care to meet the needs and desires of those we’re talking with.

BUT, when we practice shutting up and truly listen to and figure out what is needed, we can win. The audience will inherently know we’re genuinely interested in helping them and they’ll be more inclined to listen when it’s our turn to talk.

So my advice is to learn when to shut up! When we do this, we will be successful—I promise.

Have you had any experiences where you felt like the person talking to you wasn’t listening? How about you? Have you ever wished you’d shut up and listened? Feel free to share your thoughts and comments below.