Your prospect won't close themselves; as a salesperson you need to be prepared to close the transaction at every available opportunity. This might sound like Selling 101 but you would be amazed at how many times a salesperson will meet with a prospect and never attempts to close the sale. I decided to write about this because of two situations I encountered that supports my theory.
The first has to do with a conversation I overheard while sitting in a coffee shop in Fort Lauderdale. Two seats from mine, there was a young man in a suit sitting with a young woman in business attire. After a few minutes of listening, it becomes apparent that he's interested in running for political office and she's a political consultant. Furthermore, this is his first attempt at running for office and she is a seasoned veteran (or so she communicates to him).
He nervously, and quickly, gives her a brief synopsis of his background and aspirations. Now, like most untrained salespeople who are required to sell as part of their overall need to get business, she proceeded to regurgitate her presentation. He was uncomfortable with being subjected to this long and wordy presentation, he was ready to be closed, and closed quickly.
Her first attempt at closing should have been immediately after he was finished sharing his credentials and political aspirations. All she had to do was to start her presentation with something simple such as, “I've successfully done marketing and promotion for many candidates. I can effectively get your message out to the voters in your district. I've brought my standard consulting agreement so we can get started without delay.”
If this sales approach sounds too simple, that's because it is; more importantly, it's usually quite effective. Unfortunately for this prospect, simplicity was not in his future. The consultant never stopped talking. She had a prepared presentation and she was going to go through the agonizing, time-consuming process until it was complete.
Finally (after 45 minutes) she concluded her presentation. Well here it is! Ready? You guessed it—she never closed. Her last words were, “If you'd like, I can prepare a written proposal to you and we could meet again to discuss the contents.” Like too many people who engage in the selling process, the process for her did not include sales success for this first encounter with the prospect.
The next encounter I experienced when I discussed “quick closing techniques” in a sales seminar. I asked for an attendee to share embarrassing closing situations.
One brave soul volunteered that he had decided to approach a different type of prospect—someone out of the usual prospects for his service. He approached a large company, eventually got an appointment with the decision-maker and proceeded with his “finely-tuned” presentation. It went so well that the prospect agreed to start immediately to implement, on a large scale, the service being offered. (The salesperson never made a closing statement after the presentation—the prospect sold herself.) Here's the problem, the salesperson was not prepared for success and didn't have an agreement for the prospect to sign.
Oddly, these two scenarios are not unusual. Whether your job title has “sales” in it, or you find yourself selling as part of your overall need to get business, without sales training and/or coaching critical selling mistakes will be the norm rather than the exception. You don't need to attend many sales training seminars nor numerous sales coaching sessions—focus on the selling basics.
One of the most important aspects of selling is utilizing effective closing techniques. "Nothing happens until something gets sold." Taking that infamous statement to the next level, “Nothing gets sold if you don't close." Closing opportunities abound in every presentation; you need to find them!
