4 Ways to Be a Better Closer

[Pinnacle]

Closing is one of the most important skills of a successful salesperson. This, in turn, can help you in your Fastlane as you get more sales, generate more revenue because of it, and pull closer to expanding your means.

This is one of the better write-ups I've read on this topic.

4 Ways to Be a Better Closer

 

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[Jason K]

Closing is great, but if you can't even start a conversation off right there IS NO rest of the call or talk.

Sales is a process, the close is the event. People see the event and don't understand there's a process behind it. You are not going to become a great salesperson by studying closing exclusively. There are a bunch more steps to go through before you get there.

Also, most salespeople lack a consistent sales process. They "fly by the seat of their pants," thinking they know enough to get there. No. They do not. Then, when they get the sale or do not get the sale, they have no idea why they reached the outcome they did. How can you adjust your methods when you have no idea if what you're doing is effective or ineffective?

Sales is the easiest to get into, most miserable and low-paying work around, and also the most challenging and rewarding, highest value skill to bring to the table. For some reason we let salespeople go out into the world with zero training...would we do that with a doctor, an accountant, an engineer? Product knowledge means nothing. There's a lot more to it.

 

[Jason K]

Does anyone want me to expand on this topic? I can share a lot, but don't want to write for no reason.

 

[Nomad]

Sure, if you have more to share on the topic I would be interested.

 

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[Pinnacle]

Closing is great, but if you can't even start a conversation off right there IS NO rest of the call or talk.

Sales is a process, the close is the event. People see the event and don't understand there's a process behind it. You are not going to become a great salesperson by studying closing exclusively. There are a bunch more steps to go through before you get there.

I never suggested closing as an event, nor did I suggest focusing exclusively on closing, nor did I suggest studying closing exclusively. In fact, the article refers to closing as a process within the process of selling. The event is winning the sale. This thread wasn't created to provoke the idea of focusing on an event. It is to provoke the idea of expanding a skill set to produce a desired result.

Closing is a process within the process of making a sale.

Sorry if I confused you, I just thought my point was quite clear.

 

[Jason K]

Sure, if you have more to share on the topic I would be interested.

Do you have a specific sales-related problem or question?

 

[Nomad]

Well, how about overcoming objection? I know there are already a lot of resources on the topic, but what about from your own experience?

 

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[Jason K]

Thanks for your question. Overcoming objections is a big category. It's also something that can be avoided for the most part, if you do your qualification phase correctly.

The main problem is that most people in sales do not have a consistent sales process. They "fly by the seat of their pants" and depend on product knowledge to get them to the close. But prospects don't care about product knowledge. OK there might be some gearhead that does, but they likely want to puff their chest out and look like an expert rather than actually buy something. Your average prospect doesn't care about bells and whistles, features and benefits: they have an urgent problem that needs solving. Typically, that means they want your product or service for ONE or TWO things that it does--and right now they do not care about the 15 other things it can do.

If we qualify correctly, we find out these things:

Does this prospect have a need for what we offer?

Do they have the budget to afford it?

Can we work with them?

If not, then they are not a fit and you will encounter tons of objections.

If there isn't need ("want" as well; "need" just sums it up), you get buyer's remorse.

If there isn't budget, they won't be able to pay.

If their personality is unpleasant, you will be punished for working with them--no amount of money is worth being abused.

The biggest mistake I see new and experienced people making is that they are trying to turn every single person they talk to into a customer. We do NOT want everyone as a client or customer! Many people are not a good fit and will cause us more trouble than they are worth. It is faster and better to identify non-fits and move on, than to let these people into our lives with their problems.

Now sometimes you will find an up-front objection. This is a common objection that you run into over and over again with a lot of the prospects in your niche. Say you sell SEO services. I can think of two common objections right away:

1 - The prospect has been burned before by a so-called SEO "expert", and has a real fear of wasting their money again

2 - The prospect does not want to deal with an offshore service provider.

Wouldn't it be valuable to discover whether this prospect you're talking to right now has one or both of these objections right at the start of your conversation, rather than 20 minutes or two conversations into it? Why bang your head against the wall trying to convert someone who is simply not open to what you offer?

"John, before I go any further, can I ask you a question?" (Sure.) "Well, some of the people I talk to about my services have a big concern. And it's a legitimate one. In the past, they've worked with someone who said they could get results doing the kinds of things I do. But it didn't work out. The customer spent a lot of money and didn't get what they expected in return. Now they are understandably nervous about getting involved with someone else who says they can do these kinds of things. That hasn't happened to you, though, has it?"

If they answer No, then you can move on. "Didn't think so," and move into your fact-finding phase.

If they answer Yes, you can say, "OK. Do you mind sharing with me what happened?" And after they've gotten the experience off their chest, and you've empathized, "So...does this mean you're not open to working with anyone else to try and solve this problem?"

Now you know, Yes or No.

If you do your discovery phase well, in which you ask questions to find out what is really going on in your prospect's world, and you line up their problems with your solutions, there don't need to be objections. Many things prospects say are smoke. All prospects lie. This includes you and me, when we're prospects. We lie to protect ourselves from getting ripped off by bad salespeople. So we can't get upset when they lie, at least the first couple of times ("We're good, we don't need any more business"; "Our problem isn't really that bad"; "We don't have the money.") They don't know us so they don't trust us. Getting them to share the truth about what's going on in their world takes rapport-building and a little time. Even then, like Dr. House on tv informs, they won't tell us everything. Many "objections" are merely smoke because they don't know you or trust you yet.

Has this helped?

 

[Nomad]

Great post thanks for the write up. You make a good point about not wasting time on people who aren't a good fit for the product.

 

[Jason K]

Great post thanks for the write up. You make a good point about not wasting time on people who aren't a good fit for the product.

Any other questions about selling?

 

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[Nomad]

Not right now, but thanks.