Why Overexplaining Is Costing You Sales

Let's first ask ourselves the question, why does this happen? Why do we over-explain sometimes? I've coached salespeople for years and I've discovered something pretty interesting.

Almost nobody over explains because they're trying to be annoying.

I've never ran into one person that's like, hey, sales guy, why do you talk like that? Well, Jeff, it's because I just really want to annoy people.

Like nobody's ever said this to me.

They over-explain because they're trying to help, truly.

But the intention doesn't always create the outcome that they want.

And there's usually a handful of reasons as to why this happens.

And the first one, and maybe if I was stack ranking them, number one, it's fear.

You have this fear that, man, I gotta say more than needs to be said because I'm afraid they might not understand all the amazing things that my product and service can offer.

So what do you do? You explain it again, and then you explain it again because you wanna make sure they know that you are freaking awesome, right? So this fear sets in, so we over-talk.

The second thing I would tell you is anxiety.

This is when the salesperson feels like they have to prove how much they know.

And this is when you think expertise is demonstrated on how much information and product knowledge you can deliver.

And I'm here to tell you there couldn't be something further from the truth.

Then comes number three, which is approval.

Hey, you know what? Maybe if I tell them enough, they're going to like me.

They'll trust me.

Probably not the case.

Then we have number four, lack of preparation.

And if this is you, you've got to own this one.

When people haven't organized their thoughts, you know what happens? They start to ramble on.

Why? They haven't done the homework that they needed to do.

They haven't prepared.

So if they talk enough, they might be able to manipulate somebody into a buying decision.

And then the final one that I'll present to you is excitement.