Closing: Make the Sale or Don't

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Closing is the second most important step in the sales process behind Finding Needs, and it can lead to making the sale or losing it.  Closing can mean a couple of different things depending on whether you are trying to make a large sale or a small sale.  During a small sale, a successful close will always lead to making the sale and having them sign on the dotted line.  For a large sale, mostly business to business types where there are multiple people involved in the decision making process, you will most likely not be able to close that day.  When this is the case DO NOT USE TYPICAL CLOSING TECHNIQUES!  Doing this will offend your prospect and make them think that you are too pushy.  Remember:  in sales you need to form a relationship with the buyer, and being seen as pushy or uncaring of their needs will make them not want to form that relationship.



Here are a few closing techniques that will work in a small sale, but should not be tried in a large sale:

1)  Ask a few questions in a row about the product you are selling that you know the buyer will say "yes" to, then ask for the sale.  This will increase the odds that the customer will say "yes" to the sale as long as you did a good job gearing your presentation toward their needs.

2)  If you are sure that the customer really wants your product, start filling out some of the paperwork with the customer's help.  Don't come out and say that you are getting the paperwork started, but let him see that you are filling it out and start asking for some of the information needed for the paperwork.  If you were right in gauging interest in your customer they probably won't think twice about signing.  Do not do this if the customer has already told you that there is somebody else involved in the sale, like a spouse coming in to see the car you are selling.

3)  This one is probably the most used and is less risky than the other two:  ask for the sale.  It is not a bad thing for a salesperson to come out and ask "It sounds like you are very interested in my product, would you like to make this purchase today?"  You might want to rephrase this, but make sure you are direct and to the point.  Even though you might feel uneasy asking this, you will not offend anybody with this question.  More importantly, if you don't ask this question you will be leaving money on the table if they walk away.

In a large sale, like I said earlier, you will not close in one day.  A successful close in a large sale is setting up a date to advance on the sale.  This does not mean that you should ask for them to set up an appointment to sign on the dotted line next Tuesday, but you should be able to advance the sale in other ways.  You could ask for an appointment to give them a demo of your product, or to do something specific.  It is not a successful sales call if you leave with no future appointment or if you leave saying that we can set up a time to meet with no specific agenda.  You always want to be advancing the sale, not just continuing the process.

For information on my sales training feel free to visit dadesalesandmarketing.com or email me at steve@dadesalesandmarketing.com.  I can come to your place of business to train a single person or an entire sales staff.  If you are not in my area I can do video conferencing to conduct my training.