Anyone who has spent time in sales has met the customer who talks nonstop. They dominate the conversation, go on unrelated tangents, and leave little room for progress. At first, it might seem like a good sign. After all, traditional sales advice says that the more the customer talks, the better.
Dave Kahle, founder of Kahle Way Sales Systems, agreed—with one important caveat.
“There’s an exception to every rule,” Kahle said. “Generally speaking, the more the customer talks, the better off you are because that’s how you learn about the customer. But there is an exception to that. And that’s when they talk too much.”
Kahle explained that the problem isn’t conversation itself but its direction. When a customer talks endlessly about topics that don’t relate to the sale, the meeting becomes unproductive. The salesperson listens politely but has a hard time regaining control.
What’s the solution?
“You make use of your most powerful selling tool,” Kahle said. “The single most powerful selling tool is a good question.”
Kahle pointed out that the power of questions often goes unnoticed. “When you ask a question, they think of the answer,” he said. “So who’s controlling the other person’s thoughts? Bingo.”
A well-timed question disrupts the customer’s mental flow and redirects it. Instead of continuing a monologue about yesterday’s golf game, the customer begins thinking about the issue the salesperson wants to address.
Kahle demonstrated the idea with a simple example. “Did you enjoy what you had for breakfast this morning?” he asked. “When I asked the question, you probably conjured up a picture in your mind of breakfast.”
That mental shift is exactly the point. A question stops one thought process and replaces it with another.
But Kahle stressed that not all questions are created equal, and preparation matters. “The words are incredibly, incredibly important in a question,” he said. “If you ask the question one word wrong, they can think of the wrong thing.”
That’s why Kahle encouraged sales professionals to prepare questions in advance. “99.9% of salespeople will do better if they prepare their questions beforehand,” he said.
Delivery matters, too. Kahle suggested buffering questions with a brief, respectful statement to make the transition smoother. “John, gee, I really appreciate that, what you’re saying,” Kahle said as an example. “And I’m also wondering… how’s that going?”
The goal is not to shut the customer down, but to steer the conversation gently toward something relevant.
Kahle also cautioned against careless “why” questions. While effective, they can also sound confrontational. “You have to be very, very careful with why questions,” he said, suggesting they should almost always be buffered to remove what he called “the acidic nature” of the question.
In the end, Kahle’s advice was simple: keep a few well-crafted questions ready. When a conversation drifts, don’t raise your voice or speak longer. Ask better questions. “You intervene politely, nicely with a good question, get them thinking about something else.”
And if all else fails, at least you’ll know what they had for breakfast.
Watch the interview and listen to the podcast:
