“Closing the sale” is overrated

Posted by Scott Bywater in general Aug 21st, 2009

I was listening to a CD the other day where they were talking about the fact “closing
the sale” was the number one interest of salespeople.

But my experience is that closing the sale is overrated.

Why?

Because I believe most of the work in sales needs to happen in the front end. Not right at the end.

Also, I think it’s virtually impossible to close the sale if you’re not talking to someone with the right needs and the right mindset.

Here’s my view of what it takes to close more sales…

1. You need to get more people requesting information from you who are in your target market.

2. You need to build rapport and trust with that audience. Once people trust you they will turn into leads. But not unqualified leads who have no idea who you are… leads who like you and trust you. There is a big difference.

3. You need to have someone screen people before they get through to you. I believe the top reasons why sales are not closed is because you shouldn’t be speaking with that person in the first place. They don’t have the money, don’t have the need, are too skeptical, etc.

Do everything you can to ensure you are speaking with SERIOUS people and not CURIOUS people.

This can be tough and takes discipline. I am not perfect on this front and sometimes prospects slip through the cracks, but if you do it right (and ensure all decision makers are in a meeting)it will save you a lot of time.

Of course, many business owners are scared of screening out clients. But the real key is to ensure you are getting so many leads coming through your pipeline that you can be stricter on this front and manage your time more effectively.

In summary, closing the sale all boils down to a few things…

Trust is more important than clever closing techniques.

If you have the trust and are speaking with a qualified person, the sale should take care of itself.

And the best way to build trust is to get the right people to put up their hands and accept communication from you on a regular basis. And I show you exactly how to do this (including real examples you can model for your own business) in the first lesson of http://www.morecustomersmadeeasy.com

Anyway, that’s all for now.

2 Responses »

Paul, copySnips.com on August 24, 2009 at 5:37 am:
Your twitter post got me intrigued, so I had to find out what you were talking about.

Yes, I agree and it’s all part of a larger process. For example, in direct sales we were taught to close all the way through our sales presentation.

So we’d show them feature A, show them the benefits of A, and then close them on it. “So, Mr and Mrs Jones, is that what you’re looking for in the product you want?”

When we’d closed them on everything else BEFORE asking for the sale, then closing the actual sale was a much smaller step.
Mark Gibson on August 25, 2009 at 8:39 pm:
Hi Scott,

I like you find that closing the sale is where most sales people look for magic-bullets. The amount of rubbish that has been written on the secrets of closing is mind-blowing.
Im my market which has been B2B for my entire career, a sale is made early in the cycle, but the order comes much later. The seller and the buyer will engage in a process and the more effective the up-front diagnosis by the seller, the easier it will be to either qualify non-buyers out or to -climb the stairs in step with the buyer- and when you get to the top, the buyer gives you an order. The sale closes itself.

Good post.

Mark


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