Closing in stages

With consultative selling you learn what merchants are doing, what they like and what they don't like. You also gain clues about new products and services merchants may want or need.

But a sale is not a sale until you close. Entire books have been written on closing, so this column will be a light overview of the topic. Hopefully, it will stimulate you to study closing skills in more depth.

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The ABC's of closing:

In the 1992 movie "Glengarry Glen Ross," Blake, played by Alec Baldwin, delivers a hardball motivational sales training on closing that is ridiculously over the top. Still, a meaningful message is in his tirade: Always be closing (ABC). Unlike moving from sound bite to consultative selling, there is no single point of transition to the close.

Progressively, through the sales presentation, you want to do closes that ease you seamlessly to the final close. So, always be closing.

Think of it as baby steps. Other than impulse purchases, a purchase decision is not a one-step process. It is actually a series of decisions that build to the final purchase decision. Therefore, you want to do partial closes and trial closes as you go through the selling process.

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Partial closes:

A partial close is getting buy-in from the prospect to part of your sales proposal or to the steps in the buying process. It can be viewed as soliciting small commitments from prospects that are investments they are making in the sale.

One partial close might be getting merchants to provide you with merchant statements. Merchants are not going to invest the time to pull statements for you unless they have interest in buying from you.

Setting a next appointment can also be a partial close, but there is always the chance a merchant will not actually buy in and will only humor you by setting an appointment to get rid of you for the time being.

Just getting merchants to agree that they need to consider changing providers or need an additional product or service is a partial close because it is moving them to the purchase decision in incremental steps.

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Trial closes:

Trial closes move you closer to the final sale just as partial closes do. Trial closes also tell you where you are in the sales process. If you are waiting until the end of the sale to attempt your first close, you may get surprised.

If you don't know where you are in the sale throughout the sales process, then you aren't controlling the sale, and you are greatly reducing your probability of success.

A trial close is testing a prospect's orientation toward buying what you are selling. It can be phrased as a hypothetical question.

One example might be, If I can show you how you can increase sales by implementing loyalty cards, would that be something you would consider? You can also use a "would you agree?" question to see if someone is being convinced by your sales proposition.

Trial closes need to be carefully crafted. First, come up with questions that will lead to meaningful answers that add to your grasp of where you stand in the sale. Second, phrase questions in a way that makes it difficult to say no, so that you are building toward the final close.

Finally, you want to position the partial close in such a way that if a prospect does say no, you haven't killed the sale. Leave yourself room to retreat a little, so you can come back to the discussion from a slightly different angle.

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Watch for buy signals:

During the sales process, look for buy signals. These are verbal and nonverbal indicators that the prospect is moving toward buying or is ready to buy. If you are not keenly looking for buy signals, you may miss them. They can be very subtle.

Does the prospect's body language indicate he is very interested, or does it indicate he just wants you to leave?

If a merchant is thinking about where to put your new terminal, that is a strong buy sign. All too often, salespeople miss or misinterpret the buy or no-buy signals.
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Know when to hold, when to fold:

Trial closes are invaluable. They help you avoid wasting your time on a sale that is not going to happen. Sometimes I have avoided trial closes because I was afraid of their answer. All this does is waste the prospect's time and your time. If a sale is not happening, it is better to know that early on, and bail.

All too often, salespeople hang on in sales calls gone sour when they should be walking away. Your time is better spent looking for the next opportunity than trying to salvage an unlikely sale.

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Just ask:

When you reach the end of the sales process, it's time to ask for the sale. This seems so ridiculously obvious, but I am continually amazed at how many salespeople don't ask for the sale in their closes. When I interview job candidates for a sales position, I put a lot of stock in whether they ask for the job at the end.

If you have been building commitments from the prospect throughout the sale with partial and trial closes, it is much harder for them to say anything but yes when you do ask for the sale. You should be eager to ask for the sale because you have been getting buy signs along the way.

If, on the other hand, you hesitate to ask for the sale, then you likely have not been getting buy signs during the sales process, and you either have not been doing trial and partial closes or have ignored the negative responses you received.

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Now zip it:

When you have made the sale, stop selling. This is one of my pet peeves: I can't tell you how many salespeople I have seen make the sale prematurely in their sales presentation, but keep going through their entire spiel. Don't talk yourself out of a sale. If a merchant is ready to buy, close and then put away the sales pitch. Always be closing

As I said before, a sale isn't a sale until you successfully close. You can't wait until the end to do your first close or you might be unpleasantly surprised.

You should be doing little closes throughout the sale to know where you are in the sale, to know what the prospect is willing to buy and to build the prospect's commitment to your sales proposition. Closing is a learned skill for most of us; it doesn't come naturally.

What works for one person, doesn't work for another. As you reflect on each sale (or lost sale) consider how you could have done the closes better, and apply your insights to the next sale.
Develop your own personal approach and style for closing. Just remember, closing is as simple as ABC.

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By the way: RECORDING your prospect interviews, then actually LISTENING to yourself on the recording is a VERY powerful tool for rapidly increasing your closing skills and courage! If you're using LMS, please note the HELP menu item labeled "Auto Dialing > Phone Wiring Diagram" for instructions on how to set up a recorder for this purpose.

Celebrate your failures, not just your successes!

What if, starting today, the word ‘no’ didn’t stop you anymore?

What if every time you heard the word no, you became stronger, more powerful, and more resilient?

What if the greatest success strategy in the world was not to go for yes, but to go for no?

Well, it is.

The word ‘no’ does not have to debilitate you. In fact, it can empower you to achieve a whole new level of greatness you never dreamed possible. You might think this is just a sales strategy. It is a sales strategy. But, it’s a life philosophy too.

Whether we define ourselves as salespeople or not, we are all engaged in the sales process. We all must overcome fears of failure and rejection to be successful and achieve what we want.

Here are five secrets to help you turn failure into success Immediately!

1. Change your mental model of “success” and “failure”: Most people operate with the following mental model: SUCCESS <<>> FAILURE. They see themselves in the middle, with success on one end and failure on the other. They do everything they can to move toward success and away from failure.
   
   But, what if you reconfigured that model? YOU >> FAILURE(S) >> SUCCESS Instead of viewing failure as something to be avoided, turn it into a “stepping-stone” on the path to success and gratification. In other words:
   
   Success is the destination. Failure is how you get there!
   
   To achieve significant success in today’s world, failure is not just a possibility. It’s a requirement. We must see success and failure for what they truly are. They’re not opposites, but instead opposite sides of the same coin.
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2. Intentionally increase your failure rate: If it’s true that the more we fail, the more we succeed (and it is), then your immediate goal should be to intentionally increase your failure rate! With this thought in mind, you’re succeeding even when you fail. Yes, this is a counter-intuitive, reverse thinking philosophy. But trust me, it works! Intentionally increasing failure is largely ignored sales success strategy. "Go for No" means the more people tell you "no," the closer you will get to ultimate success. In other words, the more people telling you no now, the more people will say yes in the long term. If they actually counted the number of times they hear “no” during a typical day or week, most people would be shocked to see how low the number actually is. Go ahead and try it! You have nothing to lose because the opposite strategy may well not be working for you now -- correct?
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3. Set “No” goals: Everyone sets success goals. But how about setting goals for the number of times we fail? For example, rather than a salesperson setting the goal of having two prospects say “yes” to them, they set the goal of being rejected (hearing “no”) 10 times. Imagine the first two prospects they called on said, “Yes!” Rather than being done (having hit their “yes” goal), they’d actually be behind because they still have 10 no’s to go!
   The other exciting aspect of this strategy is how it keeps people “in the game” when they’re “red hot!” If all you have is yes goals and then you slow down (or quit) when you’re successful, the hot streak ends. But if you keep going when the yeses of life are falling at your feet, the sky is the limit!
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4. Celebrate your failures, not just your successes: It’s natural to be excited about our successes. Yes, you want to celebrate them. Yes, you want to give yourself a reward or even throw a party. But, if the key to success is to increase our failures, then it only makes sense to celebrate our set backs as well. Yes, you heard right: if someone turns you down, celebrate it!
   
   When is the last time you rewarded yourself for failing? Probably never! Instead of mentally punishing yourself for not succeeding, buy yourself an ice cream cone and say, “I’m one step closer to success!” Stop letting failure have the negative hold it has on your thoughts and emotions.
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5. Chose to view courage as a “muscle”: If failure is a vehicle that can take you to success, then courage is the fuel! Courage is a muscle. And, like any muscle, you must develop and strengthen it with lots of exercise. As the saying goes: Use it, or lose it. It’s no different with courage. Use and develop your “courage muscle” by looking fear in the eye and taking action anyway. Each time you take action, the courage muscle gets stronger. When you don’t, it atrophies. And before you know it your courage is gone. But it does not have to be this way. All the courage you could ever want or need to achieve every goal you have is already in you, just waiting for you to take action.

So, change your mental models, intentionally increase your failure rate, set “no” goals, celebrate your failures and see courage as a muscle, and you’ll significantly increase your success rate in six months or less -- guaranteed! Remember, this strategy is not just a sales strategy. It is not just for business. It’s for every aspect of your personal and professional life!

Bottom line: To increase your success, increase your number of failures!

Break Down Objections with Five Power Questions!

Often in the selling process you reach a point where the prospect tells you that they would like to buy your product but there is a real reason why they simply can't do that at this point in time. In most cases this is not actually true, although the prospect may genuinely believe that it is.

Here are five questions that can help you blast through this stalemate and get the order.

When you reach such a stalemate you will hear the prospect say things such as; "I can't ......", It's not possible ...", "I can't do it now ...", and so on.

The mental process that is occurring here is that the prospect is shutting down possibility -- often due to fear. While they remain in that mindset they will never be open to see that acquiring your product could in fact be a good solution for them. Your first task is to snap them out of that stalemate mentality and put them in a frame of mind that is open to accept the possibility of a solution that involves your product.,

One way to do this is to take the "unspecified" roadblock and bring it into reality so that it can be addressed and hopefully overcome. You can achieve this by this simple question:-

Question 1: What stops you?

Have you ever noticed that in frightening movies the thing that you don't really see, or don't see clearly, is usually a lot more frightening than things you can see clearly? This is a natural, human mental process that also applies to buying. Once you can bring the buyer's stumbling block into cold, hard, specific reality quite often it is not as big a stumbling block as the buyer thought it was. Also you can then "get on his side" and help him brainstorm solutions. All of a sudden he is working side by side with you to remove the objection.

Sometimes it is not an unspecified stumbling block so much as an unspecified consequence that the buyer thinks is stopping him from going ahead. This unspecified consequence is shutting down the possibility of a sale. You can reopen possibility here with:

Question 2: What would happen if you did?

You would be amazed how often they stop, think, and then say something along the lines of "well I suppose nothing really." Then you say great and proceed to complete the order form. Of course if they do specify a consequence then now you have a specific objection you can overcome.

Perhaps the problem is not that there is a roadblock at all, it is simply that you haven't qualified them well enough and now you are finding out that they are saying "I can't" because they don't actually have the authority to say "yes" but their ego doesn't want to admit it..

You can flush this out at this point by a surprise, very direct question such as:

Question 3: Who can?

Often they will simply tell you who the decision maker is before they have realised they are saying it. Other times they will remain guarded but you can follow up with "Who in addition to yourself would usually be involved in such a decision?"

Another cause of the supposed roadblock could be that they have slipped into problem focused mode and need to be shifted into solution focused mode before they can see the solution. There are two really effective questions to help you do that for them:

Question 4: What's the best way to change that?

Then, LISTEN carefully!

And the whopper question 5: What if you could? (or "What if it were possible?") How would you go about it?

This is even more powerful if you first agree that it is not possible, then induce a vision of the possibility by an open-ended question. For example: "I understand that you can't do it now. But, just for fun let's briefly pretend that it IS possible. How would you go about it?

This allows them to switch into solution focus without having to let go of the (often habitual)crutch of "impossibility."

With practice you can become very skilled at using these five questions and at knowing witch is best (or the best combination) to use in any particular circumstance. Give them a try and you will be surprised how often the stalemate vanishes.

Sales Mythology Lives On!

For more than two decades I have enjoyed the opportunity to interact with thousands of salespeople and I have discovered a few myths to which many of them have fallen prey.

Here are just a few:

1. Buyers are liars. I'm constantly amazed how many salespeople use this expression. Do people mislead salespeople? Absolutely. But this usually occurs when the sales person has failed to earn that person's trust. Gaining someone's trust means not pushing them into making a buying decision. It means focusing your attention on THEIR situation rather than trying to close the sale. Earning trust means treating people with respect and dignity even if they are not prepared to make a buying decision right now.
   
2. Anyone can be persuaded to buy. This may be true of impulse purchases but in today's business world, buyers are more savvy than ever before. I once heard someone say, "If you have a strong case you will clarify it. If you have a weak case, you will try and persuade the other person." The real key is to determine whether or not the person or company you are speaking to has a genuine need for your product or service. If they do not, then your best strategy is to move on to someone who does need AND want your particular solution. Even if a company could benefit from your product but they are reluctant to give you the opportunity to discuss, your time is better spent talking to other companies.
   
3. Price is the primary reason people make a buying decision. I will never dispute that price is a factor in the buying process but it is not usually the primary reason, unless, of course, you fail to establish the value of your products or services. If you don't clearly show how your solution will help your customer, price will become the default decision-making criteria.
   
4. A technique that works well for one person will work for everyone. Countless books have been written about one sales strategy or another and I have read many of them. In this search, I have discovered that we all have our unique personality and what works well for someone may not work as effectively for us. However, instead of discarding that particular idea you should look for a way to integrate it into your natural style and approach.
   
5. It's critical to close the sale as soon as possible. This is one of the craziest beliefs. Yes, it's important to move people towards a buying decision. Yes, it is important to gain commitments along the way. Yes, it is important to include a call to action in your proposals and conversations. But, it is also important to recognize that not every sales decision will be made quickly. Decisions can be delayed for a number of reasons, and in certain situations, trying to rush the customer to a commitment will actually cost you the sale.
   
6. Close the deal at any price. Too many people feel they have to close every deal, even if it does not make good business sense to do so. I have spoken to countless sales people who will accept a deal that has virtually no margin just so they can get the sale. I recall talking to a store owner who quickly matched the prices of her competitor in order to prevent people from going to her competition. However, this seldom creates loyalty and only conditions that customer to continue asking for a better price. Decisions like this cost you or your company money. If you are not making your desired gross profit on a particular sale, then you need to consider whether it makes good business to accept it. I know small business owners who will offer substantial discounts to a large company in the hopes of generating additional business from that client in the future. Unfortunately, they end up giving away their services and expertise because they don't get any more business from that company. They neglected to negotiate an upfront agreement.