Closing the sale is a crucial and necessary part of any sales process. It's the point where many slam-dunk sales fall through simply because the salesperson fails to close. On the other hand, a sale that's not going well can sometimes be saved by a powerful close. So how can you become a better closer?
Many people don't realize that the close starts at the very beginning of the sales process. That's because the better the rest of the process goes, the easier the close will be. A prospect who's already convinced that your product is exactly what he needs can be closed by a simple “Sign here and we'll get this delivered to you by Tuesday.” So if you improve the rest of your sales skills, you can get by with weaker closing skills.
The close really boils down to presenting your prospect with the choice of buying or not buying, and doing so in a way that buying is far more attractive. That may sound obvious, but if you think about the close in those terms, you can quickly see some useful angles. For example, prospects often fail to buy even an attractive product because of fear; they're afraid of rocking the boat, or of making a mistake, or of wasting money, and so on. The way to close such prospects is by making the product so desirable that they're more afraid of NOT getting it than they are of making a mistake. Many classic closing techniques are designed to accomplish this end.
You can think of the whole sales process as a set of scales. One side of the scale is the “don't buy” pan and holds all the concerns the prospect has about buying. The other side is the “do buy” pan and has all the motivating factors that urge him to buy. Your job is to add so much to the “do buy” pan that the scales tip in your favor. The close is the last chance you have to tip those scales. If they're already inclined to buy, then you just need to give a tiny push to close them. If the scales are weighted in the other direction, you need to drop in something very compelling to change the weights enough.
A test close is a good way to check which way the scales are loaded. If you get a fairly negative response, one way to take some weight off the “don't buy” side is to dig up the prospect's objections one by one and respond to them. Every objection that you successfully resolve is like taking weight out of the “don't buy” pan.
One mistake many salespeople make is to assume that the best way to close is to present logical reasons to buy. That won't work because people buy or don't buy based on emotions, not logic. The issues that weigh down the “don't buy” pan are usually fears of one sort or another. What you put into the “do buy” pan is either positive encouragement (hopes) or negative encouragement (fears). For example, a positive encouragement might be that the product will save him $2,000 a year. A negative encouragement might be that if he doesn't buy he'll be losing $2,000 a year. This is the same benefit but it's expressed differently. Some prospects respond better to positive encouragement, while others react more strongly to negative encouragement. It's up to you to determine which works best by trying both types and observing your prospect's reactions.
No matter how smoothly the sales process goes, nearly every sale will require some kind of close. If you don't say anything to nudge the prospect into buying now, he will almost certainly choose to wait even if he really wants the product and is ready to purchase. So always ask for the sale no matter how well or how poorly it goes – you may get a pleasant surprise.
By Wendy Connick
http://sales.about.com/
Many people don't realize that the close starts at the very beginning of the sales process. That's because the better the rest of the process goes, the easier the close will be. A prospect who's already convinced that your product is exactly what he needs can be closed by a simple “Sign here and we'll get this delivered to you by Tuesday.” So if you improve the rest of your sales skills, you can get by with weaker closing skills.
The close really boils down to presenting your prospect with the choice of buying or not buying, and doing so in a way that buying is far more attractive. That may sound obvious, but if you think about the close in those terms, you can quickly see some useful angles. For example, prospects often fail to buy even an attractive product because of fear; they're afraid of rocking the boat, or of making a mistake, or of wasting money, and so on. The way to close such prospects is by making the product so desirable that they're more afraid of NOT getting it than they are of making a mistake. Many classic closing techniques are designed to accomplish this end.
You can think of the whole sales process as a set of scales. One side of the scale is the “don't buy” pan and holds all the concerns the prospect has about buying. The other side is the “do buy” pan and has all the motivating factors that urge him to buy. Your job is to add so much to the “do buy” pan that the scales tip in your favor. The close is the last chance you have to tip those scales. If they're already inclined to buy, then you just need to give a tiny push to close them. If the scales are weighted in the other direction, you need to drop in something very compelling to change the weights enough.
A test close is a good way to check which way the scales are loaded. If you get a fairly negative response, one way to take some weight off the “don't buy” side is to dig up the prospect's objections one by one and respond to them. Every objection that you successfully resolve is like taking weight out of the “don't buy” pan.
One mistake many salespeople make is to assume that the best way to close is to present logical reasons to buy. That won't work because people buy or don't buy based on emotions, not logic. The issues that weigh down the “don't buy” pan are usually fears of one sort or another. What you put into the “do buy” pan is either positive encouragement (hopes) or negative encouragement (fears). For example, a positive encouragement might be that the product will save him $2,000 a year. A negative encouragement might be that if he doesn't buy he'll be losing $2,000 a year. This is the same benefit but it's expressed differently. Some prospects respond better to positive encouragement, while others react more strongly to negative encouragement. It's up to you to determine which works best by trying both types and observing your prospect's reactions.
No matter how smoothly the sales process goes, nearly every sale will require some kind of close. If you don't say anything to nudge the prospect into buying now, he will almost certainly choose to wait even if he really wants the product and is ready to purchase. So always ask for the sale no matter how well or how poorly it goes – you may get a pleasant surprise.
By Wendy Connick
http://sales.about.com/
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