Just the other day I was working on my social media outlets, FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and I came across  Jeff Shore’s “The Awkward Pause - New Home Sales Training” on YouTube. In the video Jeff talked about a home seller showing a potential homebuyer a model home and everything is going great. The client is asking questions, the seller is answering them and then…. nothing. It’s that uncomfortable moment when the client has no more questions and there is nothing but an awkward pause.

Jeff continues in the video with a simple solution to this very common, and let’s face it, sometimes embarrassing situation. The solution is this, have pre-made questions ready in the back of your mind for when this moment arrives. Now the pre-made questions in the video where intended for home sales, but I found myself envisioning situations that I would be in where the same questions could help me eliminate any awkward pause during conversations with clients. Then a light bulb moment, anyone in sales can use these questions to eliminate any awkward pause during a sale.

One of the “Test Questions” were, “Based on what we went over, do you have any questions?” Now you can see how this would be the perfect question to ask a customer during a walkthrough of a model after walking throughout some rooms. However this is such a great question to ask during any sell. Everything from selling cars, “Based on all the cars you have looked at, do you have any questions?” to a selling coffee beans at Starbucks, “Based on all the different types of beans and roast we went over, do you have any questions?” Another “Test Question” you can pull out during an awkward silence is, “I know we went over a lot of territory, is anything not clear at this point?” This is great question for anyone from marketing to selling a service, like a programmer. The opportunities are endless. So take a look at Jeff Shore's video and envision the situation in which you can use these questions to help you out of an awkward pause.