The Art And Science of Closing - How To Close More Sales Right Now

One of the questions I often get asked as a sales coach by sales people and business owners alike is, "How do I close sales better? What closing techniques would you recommend?"

In my experience, closing is one of the three most feared areas of the sales process. The other two are fear of canvassing and fear of objections. But the real question is, what is it about these three that creates such a fear? Especially, when even some of the most successful sales professionals face challenges in one or more of these three areas. The answer is simple - fear of rejection. Humans are social animals and the fear of rejection is one of the primary human drivers so it takes a different line of thought to face this issue. Mere techniques will not suffice.

There are books about closing with hundreds of different types of closes in. Some are great examples, some are awful but all of them have one thing in common. They are just examples. They are often not usable as "off the shelf" solutions for your sales scenarios because they each represent a model and that model only works if the person you are dealing with is "running" a similar model in their personality and if your situation is nearly the same too!

Now, I am not saying don't study about sales. Infact, quite the opposite. I do recommend that you read everything you can about sales and human communications because you will learn more about sales and communications in that way than from virtually any other. What you learn however may not always be what the author intended as you should be a student of human behaviour and influence, not beholden to any one particular book! When Bruce Lee studied kung fu he took the best of each style of kung fu and designed a new art which had no set forms and changed to be the most effective for each and every situation. A good sales professional will be aiming to achieve the same.

The first tactic for achieving a better close ration is to change the words that you use. Why not "ask for the business" or "take the order" or "provide a solution" instead? These words don't create the same fear. I have tested this on dozens of sales people and removing the word that the fear is associated with removes the fear too. If anyone has read Anthony Robbin's material he describes how you can only experience feelings that you have words for and that words only have the meaning that you ascribe to them. He describes how, because the quality of snow is important to their survival, eskimos have dozens of different words for snow but we just have sleet and snow. Their experience of snow is different than ours and we cannot comprehend that because we have no words to describe it.

Secondly, it is important that you start with the end in mind. Whenever you go to a meeting or make a call think through it in your head first. Think about what outcome you want from the meeting or call and think through the possible ways this might occur. Think also of what the minimum outcome is that you are prepared to accept from the meeting or call. When you have built rapport, asked questions, uncovered your clients' needs and provided a solution it's only natural to ask for the business. After all, you have provided a solution so asking for the business is the next step! Why would you accept less than your minimum acceptable behaviour from the client?

I once worked with a talented sales professional. He made fantastic cold calls, built elegant and effective rapport and uncovered client needs effortlessly but he did little business. In a short coaching session I discovered that he disassociated the sales process from "closing" hence he would "do the meeting" and then think, "Oh dear! Now I need to close!". Cue panic. His customers could see it and the sale was lost, every time. He was in "sales" mode and they were resisting and he was a nice guy so it was easier to walk away than risk rejection or upsetting the client! Simply by viewing the sale as one seemless process with a natural conclusion he was able to see the "timeline" and "path" of the sale. If the client deviated from this he was able to maintain control and bring them back on track. He achieved a sales breakthrough literally overnight.

At this point, I might add that you must remain flexible. There will be times when you cannot make the sale for unexpected reasons. On these occasions, it is important that you assess your performance objectively. Ask yourself whether next time you could ask better questions to uncover the unexpected situation earlier. If the answer is "no" then reset your objective for the meeting. If the answer is "yes" then take on board what you have to learn and reset the objective for your next meeting. But, and this is very important, always remember to set a new objective for the meeting.

When was the last time you heard this conversation:

"How was the sales meeting?"
"Great".
"How did you get on?".
"Oh, great I think he / she will use us!".

My next question for you is, "So what's the next step?"

This should have been agreed, with time-scales with the client. If it hasn't then you haven't reached your objective. Maybe this was because you didn't set one or you didn't achieve it but this sales meeting was not "great"!

Lets face it, you work hard to find clients and get that all important meeting with them and you listen hard to understand their true needs not your perceived ones. When you provide a solution that matches their needs they are expecting you to "ask for the business". When this becomes a relaxed, natural part of the meeting you will achieve more and effortless sales.

For the last 10 years, Gavin Ingham has been helping sales people to explode their sales performance by turning self-doubt, fear and lack of motivation into self-belief, confidence and action. With his inspirational approach to sales performance and motivation Gavin combines commercial experience, personal excellence and communications technologies in delivering personal and business sales success.

8 Must Questions to Ask in Every Sales Situation

Solving people's and organization's problems is ultimately what business is all about. Effective selling involves defining your existing or potential customer's problems. If properly "sold", a sales prospect will have his problems solved with your company's products or services. To be successful at selling, you must systematically approach customers with a proven repertoire of qualifying questions that allows you to clearly understand your customer's current business challenges.

In order to most effectively solve your customer's problems you have to ask questions, the "right" questions and most importantly, listen to the answers you get. The best source of information about a sales prospect's business problem is the prospect themselves. However, any seasoned salesperson will tell you that the customer does not always know what their problem is, how it happened or how to deal with it. Without a proven list of problem definition questions, a salesperson has little chance of achieving sales success.

In every selling situation, there are eight fundamental questions that must be answered to ultimately generate a purchase commitment, a solution to your customer's problems:

1) Does the customer know exactly what the business problem is? Are they giving you symptoms of a problem or the problem itself?

2) How long has the problem existed? Is this a temporary situation or an ongoing challenge?

3) What will happen if the problem continues? Short and long term ramifications should be explored

4) What has been done thus far to address the problem? This answer could be your "door opener" later!

5) What were the results of those efforts to "fix" the problem? Actions taken and money spent should be quantified here

6) What is the cost thus far of this problem? Here you can determine what it cost them NOT to have your company's products

7) Are there budgeted funds available to "fix" this problem? If there aren't, why not and will there be? If not, good luck!

8) Who is involved and how is the purchase commitment to be made?

You must clearly understand who the decision makers are and how the commitment decision is to be made. If you do not, there will always be "someone else" who will kill your deal within the organization!

Once you have valid answers to all these questions you can accurately determine whether the products or services your company has to offer can cost effectively solve your customer's problems. If your products or services can solve your customer's problem you now have something to talk about!

Before you begin your sales pitch, your explanation of how your offerings best meet their needs, be absolutely sure that you have all the decision makers at your presentation and have confirmed the money is budgeted to back up their purchases. If all the key decision makers are not present and you are not sure the funds are there to continue the relationship your probability of achieving sales success at this customer has been dramatically reduced!

One Final Question: Ask for the Order!

You may be wondering why, "Asking for the order" was not one of the "8 Key Questions to Ask in Every Selling Situation"? When you know your product or service can solve your customer's problem cost effectively, and it is clear they understand and sincerely appreciate the value of your product or service offerings to a level of justification that they can, and will, make a reasonable purchase commitment to you, you have AN OBLIGATION, not only to your company, but to your customer, to ask them to buy what your are selling! A simple way to do this is to ask: "What do you want to do next?" ? say nothing more until they respond.

Effective selling can be as simple as striving to get accurate answers to these fundamental problem qualification questions. It is most interesting to experience how systematically going through these eight questions with your potential customer will reduce their tendency to generate purchase objections. Also, there is an interesting relationship or "bond" that develops between the salesperson and the customer when they are asked to explain and again experience why it cost so much for them NOT to have your products or services in their lives!

Today's successful salesperson is a problem solver. How you define your customer's business problems can often be as important as how you eventually solve their problems. Use these fundamental problem definition questions as a format for your next sales call and see what happens. They could be the edge you need to get that order you thought you would never get!


By Mark Smock

The Unmentioned KEY to Selling

PEOPLE DO BUSINESS WITH PEOPLE THEY KNOW, LIKE, & TRUST. PERIOD!

See for yourself.

Let me start by asking you this. Have ever taken your business from one company and given it to another (which sells the same product or service) because you just didn't like the person you were dealing with. Have you ever said, "I don't know what it was about him or her, but I just didn't like them." Or, "I just don't trust him or her." Or, better yet, "I don't even know them."

If you've ever said these phrases, as I suspect we all have, then you know E-X-A-C-T-LY how important it is to YOU, to do business with someone you know, like and trust!!

In the beginning of any of my businesses, I knew people would do business with me if they only knew me. I also knew that once they got to know me, eventually they would like me, and more importantly trust me. Then I would be able to conduct business with them for years to come.

The same will be true for you.

Think about it for a second. The instant someone starts to trust you, you sense it, don't you? After that trust is established, moving forward becomes easier doesn't it? It can be with a friend, a loved one or in business. And it's peculiar because you can't really pinpoint it; you just know it's been verified.

Stop for a minute and think of one person you trust completely. Can you explain why you trust him or her? It's hard to put into words isn't it? I know it is for me.

There is nothing more powerful than trust. Nothing.

On the other hand, we've all decided not to buy from a Salesperson because something just didn't feel right. Maybe we suspected they weren't telling us the truth, or the salesperson was side stepping our questions.

When we sense deception or distrust, a very powerful alert mechanism is somehow automatically triggered in our innermost being. We don't think about it, it instinctively happens. It's built into us. It's as automatic as gravity. And, if we fail to yield to this built in INSTANT-WARNING-DANGER-ALERT REACTION, we will remain unsettled and uncomfortable regarding our decision.

Do you know WHY you businesses repeatedly advertise and market to people? Because they're attempting to establish trust and likeability, by continually placing their products/services in front of prospects.

That's why repetition, repetition, repetition is so vital in marketing and advertising to people who have no idea who you are.

However, that style of relentless marketing and advertising is not necessary, but is considered obnoxious, to people that already trust you. Plus it's a lot less expensive!

It doesn't matter how many books you've read on selling, marketing, advertising, or prospecting, the most important reason people BUY is they liked, and or trusted the individual or company that was selling.

So, to make your prospecting easier (note I didn't say easy), wouldn't it make sense for you to contact people that you have already established trust with? You know who they are, and I promise you they'll be more open to your new venture than a complete stranger would be.

You'll find your sales presentations, quotes, bids, estimates, and prospecting, easier if you will seek out those who already know, like and trust you.

At the core of all transactions you'll find this truth to be the foundation.

By Scott Rauber

The Choice between Yes and Yes: A Psychological Revelation

Three year old Kara was throwing a tantrum. She didn't want to go to bed, of that she was certain.

"Do you want to brush with the red or blue toothpaste?" her dad asked gently.

"Blue," she says, glad to be given the opportunity to make a decision.

Ten minutes later, Kara was well tucked up, wondering when she'd agreed to go to bed in the first place.

You laugh at the story, don't you?

The method used to get Kara into bed seems a bit like trickery. And who am I to say that it's not? Yet I want you to pay attention to one thing. Kara was glad to be given a choice between yes and yes.

Your clients are not much different

Clients come to you every single day asking you to give them a choice. A choice between yes and yes. Instead all you're giving them is a choice between yes and no.

Mah friend, your bank account will see far better days if only you'd step back, and use the immense power of the choice between yes and yes.

Of course, you don't have to believe that this choice factor works. You don't have to believe your sales will go up. All you have to see is proof. So in the article below I'll demonstrate the psychological factor of choice.How it can work for you and how it can turn against you and bite you in the you-know-where.

It all started on one stupid loss-making November's day...

We were doing fine with the sales on our website when we made one change. I'm going to demonstrate the change in the article below so it would help for you to have the page open so you can see what I'm talking about.

If you look at this page at http://www.psychotactics.com/hiddenlink.php you'll find that you get the choice to buy two packages. One is the copy of the Brain Audit and the other choice is a copy of the Brain Audit + the Brain Audit Rip.

Till the middle of November, we had both the offers up. Then one ego-driven morning we decided to pull the plug on one choice.

We gave customers the choice between a yes and um..NO!

Almost within 24 hours, our sales started going south for no reason at all. We ignored this sickening slack for about a week. Then we looked back at what was working. And we put back the choice between yes and yes.

The customer was back in choice-ville and the sales soared.

But here's the curious part

Among the two packages, one has a much higher price. Yet over 97.5% of customers, when given the choice between the two packages, chose the higher priced package.

The customer is no dumbo

No siree. The customer knows exactly what she wants. And when given the choice between yes and yes, she takes a decision to buy that which creates most value for her. Of course, if there's an enticement to buy, as was in this case, then there's a far greater likelihood of her buying the more expensive product.

The customer is no dumbo...but I sure am

Think about it. If your revenue shot up. If customers were buying higher-priced products what would you logically do? Wouldn't you take the same concept and use it everywhere you could?

You'd think a smart person would do that, wouldn't you? (Which is why I qualified myself at the start of this paragraph). But no! As we speak, the only product that has a choice of YES and YES is the page I've already mentioned above.

Don't stop at one point. Take the concept through it's paces

If you're in consulting, look at the choice between yes and yes. Are you giving the customer a choice between package A and package B. Or do you offer just one package? If you're selling products, the concept of yes and yes choice stays put.

And once you've found that the concept works, puh-lease don't do the dumbo bit. Audit every possible thing you sell. And put in a yes and yes factor. Not only will this bring you higher quantity of sales, but also an a much better price on every product/consulting assignment you do.

I said yes and yes...NOT yes and yes and yes and yes

You, me, we all crave for choice. But give us too much and we go a little waka-waka in our brains. Because choice is based on rejection. To choose the strawberry flavour ice-cream, you must mentally refuse all the other flavours.

(Read article on: The Curse of Choice) http://www.psychotactics.com/artchoice.htm

If you give a client too much to choose from, they will end up rolling their eyes, doing a RAM check and shut down their brains before you have time to do anything at all.

Keep your options simple. Keep the choice between yes and yes.

So that even a three-year old has no trouble choosing!

Secrets to Getting in Front of Your Best Prospects

As a salesperson, your ultimate goal, of course, is to make that sale. But the process begins with selecting your best prospect. The objective is to spend more time with your best prospects and less time with suspects.

In order to do that, there are three 'secrets' or keys to getting in front of your best prospects:

? Define or identify who your best prospect is.

? Be active. The primary reason sales people fail is lack of activity and/or focus.

? Be persistant. Follow up with clients. Be there when they need you.

Who, then, is your best or ideal prospect? The obvious answer is anyone who has a need, can write a check or make a decision. If you were to pursue that avenue, however, you would be reaching out to nearly everyone. Remember, you're not interested in any prospect, you need to identify your best prospect.

For example, if you asked a successful realty agent who their best clients are, they would say someone who is renting but looking to buy, or a homeowner who wants to sell. That makes sense, but it's too ambiguous. The next logical question would be "What is your primary source of income?" The answer: Listings - a realty agent's best prospect is someone who wants to sell their home, because that's where the money is.

You have narrowed the field, but need to take it a step further. Your next question, then, is "Who is most likely to sell their home?" We posed this question to Paradigm Associate real estate clients.

After careful thought, consideration and research, they identified three target groups who would be most likely to sell their home in the Metro New York area. They include households that no longer have children in the school system, therefore, they do not want to pay exorbitant property taxes associated with large single family homes; households impacted by consolidations and layoffs in banking, finance and advertising - many have decided they no longer can afford or need the proximity to New York City; and homeowners employed by international companies where employees are likely to be transferred every few years, because often, they are responsible for buying/selling their own homes.

Based on that information, it would make sense to devise a selling strategy that focuses on reaching out to these three specific market segments as opposed to reaching out to everyone who may or may not move in the next two years.

Therefore, when defining who your best prospect is:

? Review your prior sales records and activity logs and compile a list of why your customers purchased from you in the past.

? Next, confirm that these are, in fact, the reasons they selected your firm. The most effective way to do this is to call your customers.

? Ask your clients the following questions - What was the major benefit you received by working with our organization? Why did you select us and not our competition? What advice do you have for us? That is, what should we be doing more/less of? What should we be doing differently?

The first two questions remind both you and your clients about your strengths, your capabilities and they reaffirm the things you do well. It's much easier to reach your best prospects when you are clear about what distinguishes you from your competition. The third question allows you to develop a close relationship with your customer. Not only will you discover future needs, but it presents an opportunity to become a trusted advisor. More often than not, the best prospects in your market will buy from those they trust.

Once you have identified your best prospect, remain active. Ask yourself the following questions:

? Do I have a list of 25 decision makers I can contact each day?

? Do I see at least one key decision maker each day and have an agenda prepared for them?

? Do I have a clear picture of how my product or service can benefit my future client?

? Do I have goals in place for each of my customers?

? Do I have a follow-up system in place?

That last question leads to my final point - You need to be persistant. In my more than 18 years of sales training, what I have found in tracking results is that our clients work with us not because of our good looks, best jokes or tee times, but because we follow up.

The best and most successful firms are those whose sales people are persistant. I recently had a discussion with Lew Hoff, Founder and CEO of Bartizan Data Systems. He told me about his firm's first client which he signed on in 1970 and who remains with him today. Through the years, this client has provided Bartizan with more than $1.5 million in revenue. After all these years, Lew asked his customer why they chose Bartizan over the four more experienced providers. His client's response was, "Because you were the only one who followed up."

By Michael W. O'Reilly

Selling More Effectively as a Trusted Sales Professional - Thirteen Tips

Do you want to sell more successfully using an honorable and straightforward approach? Read these thirteen sales tips to help you be perceived as a trusted sales professional by buyers. Incorporating these sales tips into your selling process will differentiate you from the rest and help you sell more successfully.



Attitude can be everything. It is important to remember that your attitudes drive all actions and these actions are perceived by buyers as trust-building or trust-breaking. The most important change you can make to sell more successfully is to adopt and reinforce attitudes that will lead to actions resulting in greater levels of trust. Conversely, it is just as important to "lose the attitudes" that result in actions that are trust-breaking.



Truly believe in the product or service and company for which you sell. This is a really difficult hurdle for most sellers who strongly believe in straightforward selling. If you don't believe your products or services will benefit your buyers, then you will constantly be in conflict with yourself during the sales process. If selling using a straightforward platform is truly important to you, it might be necessary for you to find another product or service you will better represent to truly be successful using this approach.



Intimately know the product or service and environment in which you sell. Do you need to be an expert? Maybe not. But it can only benefit your customer to know as much as possible so you can identify if your product or service can best meet their needs. A significant aspect of building trust with your buying counterparts is quickly establishing credibility. First and foremost, you should know much more about your products and services - as well as your competitors' products and services - than your prospects. Secondly, you should know your customers' organization and industry and the unique challenges and issues they face better than any of your competitors. Lastly, "I don't know" is a very appropriate answer when that is, indeed, the case. If you're new to a market, letting your potential customers know that up-front will help lower their expectations and make you feel more comfortable when giving "I don't know" as an answer. When you use this response, however, make sure you offer to find out the answer in a specified timeframe, and then be sure to keep that promise.



Live within your means. It's simple. Don't force yourself into a position where you "have to make the sale" or you lose something. For one, prospects don't like to feel like you are desperate for business. Secondly, if you want to sell using an honorable approach, it's important to reduce the risk/reward for a given sales situation. If you typically make only three to five sales per year and find yourself in serious debt, don't you think there's a definite likelihood that you might "stretch your value structure" a bit to make sure you win the sale so that your debt can be reduced?



Focus on helping the prospect rather than making the sale. If all you're thinking about is making the sale, this will be perceived negatively by your prospect through your actions. It doesn't mean you should never think about the sale, it simply means that you need to focus on the prospect's needs first and foremost.



View yourself as an advisor. This is a different mindset that may be foreign to a lot of salespeople. If you adopt the mindset that you're an advisor with the primary goal of identifying and fulfilling your potential customers needs, your attitudes and actions will be perceived very differently by your counterpart(s) than if your view yourself as a sales rep needing to "overcome the obstacles" and "close the sale."



Focus on the long-term. Admittedly, this is difficult. Most salespeople are used to the frequent calls from sales managers reminding them that "we've got to make our monthly or quarterly targets." If you can adopt this attitude, though, you will likely see higher sales, both short-term and long-term. Buyers hate to be "closed." If you take a short-term mentality, there's a high likelihood that buyers will perceive you as trying to close them - this is trust-breaking and your sales will likely suffer in the short AND long-term.



Some business is not worth pursuing. Most sales managers probably hate this one. It's important, though, to be realistic about each sales opportunity. You're not going to win every sale, so why work under the assumption that you will? Oftentimes, there are many early indicators that will lead you to believe that there's a low probability for making the sale. If that's the case, move on and spend your limited time and energy on opportunities where there's a higher probability for success.



Tell the prospect if your product or service will not meet their needs. Once you've had a reasonable opportunity to ask the appropriate questions, you must be willing to let the prospect know, as soon as possible, if your product or service will not meet their needs. This will result in a more efficient buy/sell process and save both you and the prospect valuable time that could be better spent elsewhere. The prospect will respect and probably trust you more for selling in this manner, and very well may purchase or recommend someone else to purchase from you in the future.



Ask questions, listen, and take notes. Entire books have been written on this subject. Prior to every prospect meeting, you should already have a list of at least one dozen questions to ask. The prospect's response to each of these questions should oftentimes be followed by one to three additional questions to drill down to the true issues and needs. Always take notes. This will show the prospect that you're truly listening. Also, send your typed notes to the prospect and ask them to review to ensure that you did indeed "get it right."



Follow the 80/20 Rule. When meeting with a potential buyer, you should try to talk 20% of the time and allow them to talk 80% of the time - a lot of salespeople and sales managers get this one confused.



Be direct. Answer buyer questions directly. Why do you think there is such a loss in the public's trust with politicians? How often do they provide a direct answer to a question? Rarely. Just because most politicians set a poor example, doesn't mean you should.



No "closing." One of the worst things you can do as a salesperson is to spend a lot of time and effort building trust with a prospect, only to destroy your "trust factor" towards the end of a complex sales process. No buyer likes to feel they're being manipulated or "closed." Make a recommendation, preferably with several options for the prospect to consider, and ask them to identify the next steps with a timeline. Tell them you'd really appreciate their business and ask what next steps you can take that will be helpful to them.

By Robert Reed

Peak Performance

One of the best books I have ever read is a 1986 classic written by Charles Garfield; Peak Performers: The New Heroes of American Business. Garfield spent nearly twenty years trying to figure out what causes some people to excel to amazing successes, while others bask in the glow of mediocrity.

He discovered all types of individuals can become peak performers, that they are made....not born. Regardless of industry, he uncovered these superheroes of the business world in every corner of the United States.

Possessing key attributes, a peak performer will very likely:

? Be motivated toward results by a personal mission
? Posses the twin capacities of self-management and team mastery
? Have the ability to correct course and manage change


Every field has those who reach the top. There are those who are in the top 10% and then those dominate in the top 1%. I am constantly fascinated by those who have that "spark" that leads them to achieve more than other from similar background. Amazing people who are able to work harder (or is it smarter?) and do so without visible signs of effort. They accomplish more than any one could ever imagine. These people stand out as an example to us all.

I have a friend who we have call "Midas". Since college he has had a spectacular career. He is able to spot great investments and helps others build their companies and maintains a phenomenally strong network of business and personal contacts. All this and he still has time to be a dedicated husband and father.

How about you? Are you a peak performer? If not, do you have the desire to accomplish more in your career and personal life? Here are three ideas that can help you on your path to peak performance:

? Never stop learning. Read books, magazines, newspapers, websites, blogs and other materials. Develop a never ending thirst for knowledge.

? Have a plan. If you do not know where you are going, how will you know when you arrive? Set goals and write them down. Refer to your goals regularly and make decisions that lead you toward their completion.

? Take action. Many intelligent people never reach their potential because they do not ever get moving. Even if you have to adjust your direction, having momentum makes it easier to get things done.

Make the commitment to be better tomorrow than you were today in everything that you do. With this as your mantra, the sky is the limit on what you will achieve.

By Thom Singer