Closing the Sale without Being Slick



When it comes to selling skills, many people tell me that they need help with closing the sale. Although closing is an important skill set, it is at the end of the sales process. I have found that the beginning of the sales process is actually where the closing starts. If you create and follow a sales process for your business, you will be closing to each stage in your process. Utilizing the sales process will make closing the sales an inevitable outcome. At the request of several clients, I am focusing this entry on closing techniques. I will provide more details about the sales process in my next entry.

When we think of sales, many of us have an image of the aggressive sales person who is going to pressure us into making a purchase whether we need the product or service or not. This person is trying to separate us from our money. We conjure up images of used car salesmen who might say things like, "What do I need to do to see you in this car today?" Have we gone too far the other way? Are we now too concerned with appearing aggressive that we are too passive when it comes to closing a sale?

Asking the right questions is the key to closing a sale. When I first started out as a fledgling sales person, I was afraid of asking too many questions, bothering someone on the other line and appearing too pushy. My sales results reflected this fear as I had a tough time hitting quota. I made a lot of calls and talked to a lot of people but I was just nice to everyone. Now I have applied proven sales techniques and I am still "nice" but I work towards "closing the sales" always. What I mean by this is I follow the ABC's of selling -- "Always Be Closing."

Closing is not pressuring someone to buy. It is a technique to ask the prospect if they are ready to move forward to the next step in your sales process and if not, then why. Many times there may be questions or concerns the prospect has about your product or service and they simply need further explanation.

As you are in a dialog with your prospect and you are discussing the benefits of your product or service, you want to also be asking questions to gauge their understanding of your benefits as well and their interest level. Here are just a few examples of closing statements that will help you close the sale:

"How does this sound to you so far?"

"When would you like to get started with something like this?"

"Does this sound like something that would help you? How?"

"When would you be interested in moving forward?"

When customers make a commitment to buy from you, they are in reality placing their trust in you to deliver solutions to solve their problems. A customer's commitment to buy is a natural part of the sales process that must make the customer feel good about buying from you.

To compete in today's marketplace, it is important not to manipulate our customers into commitments they later regret. Long-term selling success is built on repeat customers who see results and tell other people about the positive experience they have with your business. You will also be pleased with the results of all the happy customers as well as the increase to your sales numbers.

To your success,

Joanne Hernon

CEO of Sales Solutions