Finding Answers

Preparation is a very important part of having success in any sales situation.  Intimately knowing your product, knowing your customer, and knowing your market environment will set you up for that most precious part of any sales call… THE CLOSE.

This is the part of the sale where you ask the prospect, client, customer or whatever you are calling the person opposite you the most important question, “Will you buy from me today?”

Yet there are three reasons why most people fail at THE CLOSE:

1. They are afraid of rejection.  Afraid that the answer will be “No” or “Not today” or “bugger off!”  Fear that they will not win and therefore they do not ask for the sale.  This comes from either having no self-confidence (which no salesperson would ever admit to) or during the entire sales process they never knew where they were.  The latter comes from the fact that they never listened to what the prospect was saying.  That goes for both verbal and non-verbal communication.
2. They never earned the right to ask for the business.  This particular failure is similar to the one above by not listening to their client.  The salesperson is either talking to hear their own voice or just spewing information with out taking a breath. Either way they fail to listen — again verbal and non-verbal cues — to the client.  Instead like a steamroller, the salesperson rolls over the client not just once, but goes back and forth over the flattened body.  When they utter THE CLOSE, the client gets their chance to finally get listened to and relishes saying “NO!”
3. This is the easiest failure to overcome and it just requires the salesperson to shut up after asking THE CLOSE.  While it could be the fear of silence, nervousness, or just plain vanity the salesperson asks the customer to purchase and then keeps talking.  Sometimes this is called “buying back the business” when in reality it is just rude.

Do you fall into any of the three above?

Listening Is Key

If you do here are four tips you can use right now:

• Find a way to be confident and not fear rejection.  Look for little victories that will add up to winning the big one!
• Listen to your customer — seek to understand what they are telling you both verbally and non-verbally.
• It is not a contest to see who can get the most words out in a specific time.  Breathe and ask thought provoking questions.  Listen to the answers your customer gives you. (Write them down! How novel!) Pause before you speak and give a sincere response to what the customer just told you.
• Ask your closing question and then be quiet.  You have done your job now let your customer do theirs.

Now go out there and CLOSE!