We learn wisdom from failure much more than from
success. We often discover what will work, by
finding out what will not work; and probably he who
never made a mistake never made a discovery.
—Samuel Smiles
CLOSING IS OFTEN THE MOST PAINFUL PART OF THE sales presentation. It is the part that most salespeople dislike the most. They become reluctant to proceed. They freeze up and lose their feeling of control over the buying process.
The prospect also dislikes having to make a buying decision. As you get closer and closer to the end of the sales presentation, he becomes nervous as well. Your job as a sales professional is to structure the presentation in such a way that you move smoothly through the close and wrap up the sale.
Closing is very much like a bump at the end of the road of the sales conversation. You have established rapport, identified needs, presented your product, and answered objections. Now you have to wrap up the transaction and get the order. As you approach this final bump, your task is to take the prospect past this point as quickly as possible.
Don’t Draw It Out
There is a story of an old gentleman who calls up his long-time dentist and says, “Bill, I’ve got this rotten tooth, and it’s got to come out. I just wondered how much you charge nowadays to pull a tooth?”
His dentist friend replies, “Well, Jack, it’s eighty dollars to pull a tooth.”
Jack says, “Wow! That’s a lot of money. How long does it take?”
“It takes about one minute.”
“Eighty dollars for one minute?” Jack cries. “That’s an awful lot of money for that small amount of time.”
“Well, Jack,” says the dentist, “if it’s the amount of time that concerns you, I can take all the time you’d like.”
MAKE IT SMOOTH AND PAINLESS
You have an obligation to your customers to move smoothly through the close and to assure that it is as quick and painless as possible. To minimize stress for both of you, you must make it fast and efficient. This is a key part of your job.
There is always a period of tension at the end of the sales process. For you as a salesperson, the close represents the culmination of all your efforts. The idea of losing the sale can be very stressful. You start to feel tense. Your stomach churns. Your solar plexus tightens up. Sometimes your heart rate increases, and your throat goes dry. Because you are asking the customer to take action, and he may say no, the whole idea of closing triggers a tremendous fear of failure.
You have an obligation to your customers to move smoothly through the close and to assure that it is as quick and painless as possible.
The shorter the closing process, the less stress you experience. Take the prospect through the close promptly. Fortunately, this is a selling skill that you can learn with input and practice.
Once you have explained your product, and the prospect’s buying desire has been aroused, move briskly past the close and into wrapping up the details of the purchase.
REVERSE ENGINEER YOUR PRESENTATION
The key is to plan your close in advance. And instead of planning your sales presentation first and then your close, plan your close and then your sales presentation. Decide how you are going to ask for the order, and then “reverse engineer” your sales presentation. Start with the end in mind. Then go back to the beginning and organize your sales presentation so that it arrives logically at your closing question.
Take the time to think through exactly how you are going to ask for the order when it is clear that the prospect is fully informed and ready to buy. Plan and rehearse your closing technique(s) so that you can do it in your sleep. Top sales professionals have their closes planned word for word, in advance. So should you.
Amateur salespeople, those who spin their wheels in frustration year after year, tend to fly by the seat of their pants in every sales conversation. When it comes time to ask for the order, their hearts pound, their foreheads sweat, and they say whatever comes out of their mouths. They then cross their fingers, hoping and praying that the prospect will buy. Professional salespeople proceed through the presentation, and through the close, in a single smooth, well-prepared process.
Six Major Requirements for Closing
1. You must be positive, enthusiastic, and eager to close the sale. Emotions are contagious. When it is clear that you intensely desire to make this sale, your desire will have a positive effect on the behavior of your prospect.
2. The prospect’s requirements must be clear to you. As a result of asking and listening, you should know exactly what this prospect wants and needs from your product.
3. The prospect must understand your offer and the value of your product or service to her. She must be absolutely clear about what your product does to change and improve her life or work.
4. The prospect must believe and trust you. There must be a high degree of rapport and friendship. In addition, the prospect must have faith in your company and believe that they will deliver on your promises.
5. The prospect must desire to enjoy the advantages and benefits of your offer. He must want what you are selling. There is no point in trying to close a sale if the prospect is not intensely interested in benefiting from your product or service.
6. The product must be suited to the customer, ideal for her needs, capacity to pay, and circumstances. It must be clear to the prospect that this product or service is the right choice for her at this time.
Only when you have fulfilled these six requirements can you move confidently into closing the sale. If any of them has not been achieved, the prospect will refuse to buy.
Closing Too Early
Think of visiting a typical used car lot. You stop to look at a car for just a moment, and suddenly a salesperson emerges and says, “That’s a good choice; why don’t you buy it?”
After you ask the closing question, you must then be completely quiet. Don’t say a word. Allow the silence to build up if necessary, because whoever speaks first, loses.
In a situation like this, you don’t know anything about the car, and the salesperson doesn’t know anything about you. He is asking you to make an offer or buy the car before you know anything about it. Attempting to close before you are fully aware of what you are buying does not arouse buying desire. Quite the opposite; you feel insulted, and your first impulse is to simply walk away.
Avoid High Pressure
There are four things you must be sure of before you ask a closing question:
First, the prospect must want it.
Second, the prospect must need it.
Third, the prospect must be able to afford it.
And fourth, the prospect must be able to use it and get full value out of your product or service.
If you ask for the order before these four requirements have been determined, you will often kill the sale.
Use Silence After a Closing Question
The only pressure that you are allowed to use as a sales professional is the pressure of the silence that takes place after the closing question.
After you ask the closing question, you must then be completely quiet. Don’t say a word. Allow the silence to build up if necessary, because whoever speaks first, loses.
Once upon a time, the president of a fast-growing company was considering the purchase of a $750,000 computer system to automate every aspect of his national business. The company that was bidding for the job had done everything exactly right. The salesperson had established rapport, identified the customer’s needs, done a full analysis, checked it out in every detail, and prepared a complete proposal for the customer to consider. They had arranged the final appointment, and the salesperson was coming in to close the sale.
The president of the prospect company had started his career in sales when he was younger. He was curious to see how this computer salesman was going to close a $750,000 sale. In the final presentation and discussion, the president had his controller and his accountant present to go over the final details. The salesman came in with his engineer and computer programmer. They sat down and began.
As the salesman went through the proposal, he explained how it would be installed, what would be involved, the warranties and guarantees, the help and service they would provide, the additional consulting that was available, and every other detail of the purchase. He gave him the price and explained what it included. Finally he said, “If you like what I have shown you, then if you’ll just authorize this contract, we’ll get started on it right away.”
He then put a tick mark next to the signature line, put his pen on the contract, and pushed it across the desk to the president.
THE SILENT CLOSE
The president could see it coming. He thought to himself, He is going to use the silent close on me. He knew exactly what the salesperson was doing, so he just looked at him and smiled.
The salesman and the president sat there silently, smiling at each other, for what seemed like an eternity. The silence lasted fifteen minutes. Neither one of them said a word. Neither of the other people present said a word either. They had all been prepared.
Finally, the president smiled, picked up the pen, and signed the contract. At that point, they both laughed. So did everyone else. The tension was broken, and the deal was done.
The pressure of the silence after the closing question is often the most powerful sales tool you have for concluding the transaction. But you must be disciplined. Once you ask a closing question, you must not “step on your lines” by adding anything. Just wait quietly for the prospect to respond.
Recognizing Buying Signals
There are several common buying signals that the prospect will give off to let you know that he is on the verge of making a decision. Relax and be aware of these signals when they come. They tell you that it is time to ask a closing question.
RAPID TALKING
The prospect will often start talking faster. He may brighten up and become more positive and cheerful. In his mind, he has reached a decision, and the inner tension has been broken. Whenever a customer shifts from thoughtful or critical to positive and happy, you can speak up and ask a closing question.
SUDDEN FRIENDLINESS
The customer engages in “sudden friendliness.” She seems to relax, shift gears, and may ask you a personal or friendly question. “How long have you been in town?” “Do you have kids in school?” “Would you like another cup of coffee?”
Whenever you experience this sudden friendliness, you should respond warmly and positively, and then ask a closing question. “Thank you. I will have another cup of coffee. And by the way, how soon would you need this?”
CHIN RUBBING
Chin rubbing is another sign that the customer is approaching a buying decision. Whenever a prospect goes into deep thought, his hand comes to his chin and his head goes down. If you are talking with a prospect and he begins rubbing his chin and thinking, stop talking immediately. Your customer has now gone inward and is no longer listening to you. If you continue to speak, you will sound like a droning noise in the room, like a big bee trying to get out the window. Instead, become perfectly silent.
If you are talking with a prospect and he begins rubbing his chin and thinking, stop talking immediately. Your customer has now gone inward and is no longer listening to you.
While the customer is rubbing his chin, he is processing your offer. He is thinking through how he can buy your product, how he can pay for it, how he will use it, where he will put it, and so on. When his hand comes down from his chin, his head comes up, and you make eye contact with him, in 99 percent of cases, the decision to buy has been made.
At this point, smile and ask a closing question, such as, “How soon do you need this?” Then sit silently until you get confirmation.
QUESTIONS ABOUT PRICE, TERMS, OR DELIVERY
The most common buying signals are when the prospect asks you about price, terms, or delivery.
“How much does this cost, exactly?
“What sort of terms can I get on this purchase?”
“How long does it take to get one of these if I decide to buy it?”
Whenever the prospect asks you a question involving price, terms, or delivery, turn it into a closing question by asking about one of the three subjects that the client did not mention.
For example, the prospect asks, “How much does this cost?”
You reply, “How soon do you need it?”
When the prospect says, “By the end of the month,” the sale is made.
Remember that the person who asks questions has control. Here is the key. Always try to answer a question with a question. This enables you to get more information and often close the sale. But most importantly, it allows you to keep control of the sales conversation.
Prospect: “How soon can I get this?”
You: “How many did you want?”
If the prospect gives you a specific number, you’ve just made a sale.
CHANGE IN ATTITUDE, POSTURE, OR VOICE
Any noticeable change in attitude, posture, or voice can indicate that a buying decision is near. If the prospect sits up straight or begins calculating numbers, you can test to be sure that this is a buying signal by asking,
“By the way, how soon do you need this?”
“Would you want us to get started on this right away?”
“How many of these would you like?”
“Would you prefer that we deliver this to your office or to your warehouse?”
Whenever you see a prospect changing his demeanor or body language in any way, moving in his chair, brightening up, or becoming friendly, assume that the decision has been made and ask a question to confirm it.
Why the Close Is Difficult
There are several reasons why the close is the most difficult and stressful part of the sale. The first of these is the salesperson’s natural fear of rejection. We are conditioned from childhood to be highly sensitive to the ways we are treated by others, especially to their approval or disapproval.
This begins with our parents and then transfers to our bosses and our customers. As adults, at an unconscious level, we are very concerned about being liked and accepted by others. The possibility of rejection is something that causes us tremendous stress, and that we make every effort to avoid.
REJECTION IS NOT PERSONAL
When I was just starting out in sales, and extremely nervous, an experienced salesperson told me something that changed my course. He said, “Remember, no matter what a prospect says, rejection is not personal.”
Wow! That was an important point. “Rejection is not personal.”
A prospect cannot reject you as a person because the prospect does not even know who you are or what you are selling. All the prospect is doing is responding to a commercial offer in a competitive society where he is overwhelmed with people trying to sell him things. When he says something like, “I’m not interested,” it doesn’t mean anything; it is not a reflection on your ability or character. It is just a natural, knee-jerk reaction to any sales offering.
Fully one-third of salespeople drop out of selling each year because they cannot deal with the rejection that is part and parcel of the business. Top salespeople, however, continually remind themselves that rejection is not personal, and they don’t let it bother them.
FAILURE IS ONLY FEEDBACK
The second reason closing is hard is because of the fear of failure, of trying and not succeeding. It is the fear of losing your time, your effort, and even your money, of making an investment of energy and emotion in a prospect and losing it completely when the prospect decides not to buy from you.
The fear of failure, coupled with the fear of rejection, is the primary reason people underachieve or fail in life. It is only when you get over these two fears that you begin to realize your full potential in sales, and in every other area.
Keep reminding yourself that there is no such thing as failure; there is only feedback. When you try something that doesn’t work, look into the experience for the valuable lesson you can learn, and then let it go. Say to yourself, Some will. Some won’t. So what? Next!
Overcome Your Fears
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.” This is one of the most important success principles ever discovered. The only way that you can eliminate a fear that might be holding you back is to do the thing that you fear. The death of fear is certain.
Both courage and cowardice are habits. You can develop the habit of courage by confronting your fears and moving toward them rather than hiding from your fears and moving away from them, as most people do. As Mark Twain once said, “Courage is not absence of fear; it is control of fear, mastery of fear.”
DO THE THING YOU FEAR
Make more calls, and you will experience less fear of making calls. If you keep making calls, as many as possible, day after day, without really caring whether the prospect responds in a positive or negative way, you eventually reach the point at which you have no fear at all. By confronting your fears of failure and rejection, you eventually develop habitual courage. At this point, you will turn a corner in your career, and your sales will begin to go up rapidly.
Once you have developed courage as a habit, along with the ability to face your fears of failure and rejection, your whole life will improve. You will feel terrific about yourself. Your self-esteem and self-confidence will swell. And as you improve on the inside, your sales results will improve on the outside.
Why Customers Don’t Buy
The fear of failure is also a major reason why people don’t buy. They are afraid of making a mistake, of purchasing the wrong article. They are fearful of paying too much or of being criticized for making the wrong choice.
Every prospect has made buying mistakes in the past. She has bought things that she wishes she hadn’t. She has been left in the lurch after a purchase, unable to get support or service, and sorry that she ever dealt with that company in the first place.
YOU MUST OVERCOME CUSTOMER FEARS
When you go to see a new prospect, you have to deal with the fact that this prospect has had all these difficult and challenging past sales experiences. You must not only arouse buying desire for your product, but you must overcome all the fears this prospect has, based on his previous experience, of making a mistake.
How many times have you heard a prospect say, “I have to talk it over with someone else before I make a decision”?
Husbands will not buy a product until they have talked to their wives. Wives will not buy a product until they are sure their husbands will approve. Managers will not OK a purchase until their bosses have agreed to it. Many people cannot make a buying decision at all until they have gotten the approval and assurance from everyone around them. This is how customers deal with the twin fears of failure and rejection.
Customers Become Comfortable
Another major obstacle to closing is human inertia. If a person is comfortable using a particular product or service, it is much easier for him to continue with what he is doing than to make a change. People get into a comfort zone. They become accustomed to their current methods. You may have a cheaper or better product, but the advantages and benefits you offer are often not enough to get the prospect to change his existing way of doing things.
To get a prospect to change from one product or service to another, from one way of doing things to a different way, you must emphasize all the additional benefits that he will enjoy. The attractiveness of the benefits must be so great that they motivate the prospect enough to do something different. You may have to return several times, continually repeating and emphasizing the benefits and advantages of your offer to get the prospect to finally make the transition.
Buying Can Be Stressful
Another common obstacle to closing is the stress involved in making a buying decision. Since the buying decision involves an irrevocable commitment of assets, and limits the freedom and flexibility of the prospect, people always become a bit nervous when it comes to making the final decision. When people feel the stress of making an important commitment, they often tense up and push it away, saying, “Leave it with me; let me think about it.”
Because of these psychological obstacles to closing, both on your part and on the part of the prospect, you must be positive, confident, and professional at every stage of the sales process. You must especially move quickly through the close to wrapping up the details rather than leaving the closing decision hanging in the air. In everything you do, make it easy for the customer to say yes.
The Prospect Is Always Right
Never tell the prospect that he is wrong. Never argue with him. And never look at selling as a competition that you need to win. No matter what the prospect says about your product or service, remain relaxed and cheerful. Don’t tell him that his assessment of your product is incorrect. Instead say, “That’s a very valid concern, Mr. Prospect. Many of our customers have had the same concern, and here is how we have taken care of it.”
There is an old saying: “A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still.” If you argue and overwhelm the customer with your brilliant response, the prospect may nod and agree with you, but she will still end up not buying.
Instead of debating a point with regard to price or quality with your prospect, find a way to neutralize the concern. Answer the objection to her satisfaction. Show her that she need not worry about the part of your offering that she is challenging.
USE TESTIMONIAL LETTERS
Perhaps the most powerful tool you can use to overcome objections and concerns is testimonial letters from satisfied clients who had the same concern when you first spoke to them. Sometimes we call these sweetheart letters. If you have made a sale and you have a good relationship with the customer, go back and ask him if he would write a sweetheart letter for you. You can even offer to write the letter yourself and have the customer put it on his own letterhead.
Never tell the prospect that he is wrong. Never argue with him. And never look at selling as a competition that you need to win.
In the sweetheart letter, you take a common objection that you get, such as high price, and have a customer give you a letter that says something like this:
Dear Brian,
When I first spoke to you about your product, I was concerned about your high price in comparison with other products available in the market. But I decided to go ahead anyway, and I am certainly glad I did. We have found that your higher price is more than justified by all the additional features and benefits that we have experienced with your product since we started using it.
Sincerely,
A Happy Customer
Show this to your prospect when the question of high price comes up. It will often demolish her concerns.
TESTIMONIALS ARE PROOF
As a general rule, the prospect will discount anything you say about your product or service. After all, you are a salesperson. You are expected to speak positively about what you are selling.
But if someone else says something good about your product, especially in writing, that is considered to be a valid statement. Third-party proof, in the form of testimonial letters, is a powerful way to convince people of the goodness and value of what you are selling. This is why it is said that “salespeople who don’t use testimonial letters have skinny kids.”
Keep Your Opinions to Yourself
A common error to avoid is expressing your opinions to a prospect on subjects of a personal nature. The basic rule is to avoid the subjects of religion, politics, or sex. Even if you feel strongly about one of these areas, and your prospect wants to talk about the subject, make every effort to remain neutral. You can nod and agree with the prospect’s opinion, but don’t feed the fire by adding comments of your own. Instead, gently bring the conversation back around to your product or service by asking questions that relate to this area. Keep your opinions to yourself.
Always Be Complimentary
Never knock your competition. In fact, you should do the opposite. If your competitor’s name is brought up in the conversation, and the prospect asks, “What do you think about ABC Company?” always reply positively. You could say, “Mr. Prospect, ABC is an excellent company. They have good products, and they have been around for a long time. However, we believe that our product is superior to ABC’s in three specific ways. Let me show them to you.” You then concentrate on selling the values and benefits of your product or service, but without saying anything negative about your competitor’s. When you speak positively about your competitors, customers view you in a more positive way than someone who criticizes their competitors.
Don’t Assume Authority
The final closing error to avoid is assuming authority that you don’t have. It is making promises that you can’t keep. It is overselling your product, saying that your product can do something that it cannot do.
Not long ago, an office equipment saleswoman lost a $10,000 sale with my company because of overpromising. In the course of discussing the specifications for the machine, my office manager asked her if it could do two-sided copying. She assured her that it could. But when we looked at the specifications more closely, we found that it definitely did not do double-sided copying. The saleswoman had not taken the time to fully understand what she was selling. Not only did she lose the sale, but she lost an enormous amount of credibility. Don’t let this happen to you.
More Obstacles to Closing
Another major obstacle to closing is negative expectations. These occur when the salesperson decides in advance that this particular prospect is not going to buy. He prejudges the prospect based on his initial attitude or his physical surroundings. Perhaps the prospect is not stylish or well-groomed. Maybe the office or its furniture is old or cluttered. The salesperson leaps to the conclusion that this is not a good prospect and stops making any real effort to conclude the sale.
Remember the law of expectations, which says, “Whatever you expect, with confidence, becomes your own self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Your expectations exert an undue influence on the people around you. The expectations of other people, especially people whom you look up to and respect, have an extraordinary influence on you as well. Your expectations determine your attitude, and your attitude determines how you treat other people.
EXPECT THE BEST
The rule with regard to expectations is to always expect the best! Expect that people will like you. Look forward to people being attracted to your product or service. Anticipate people asking you tough questions prior to buying. Then expect to be successful more often than not. Incorporate an attitude of positive expectancy into your sales activities, and people will treat you better . . . as you expected. You’ll also make more sales.
But when you make the mistake of negatively prejudging a prospect, you lose your enthusiasm. Your attitude comes across as that of someone who doesn’t really believe in the sale or the prospect’s ability to buy what you are selling. The prospect picks up this attitude from you and fulfills your prophecy. He declines to buy.
Great Results from Small Beginnings
A friend of mine sells personnel placement services. He called on an industrial building in a warehouse area one day only to find that the warehouse was fairly unoccupied. There was only one man, seated behind a desk in a small office off the main entrance. There were no other offices and no partitions. The building was empty.
Since my friend was already there, he confidently knocked on the door and introduced himself to the one man who was there. They began talking about his business. He told the prospect that he was in the business of personnel selection. Their specialty was to find and place both technical and nontechnical personnel for industrial corporations. They had the ability to staff a company with engineers, technical employees, and draftspersons, as well as with secretaries, accountants, and bookkeepers. They focused on manufacturing and construction companies.
DON’T PREJUDGE THE PROSPECT
The lone prospect said, “Well, we have nothing going on right now. I have just been sent out here from the East to open this office. We are working on a major contract, and we have high hopes, but we don’t have anything firmed up as of yet.
“If you would like to call back in the next couple of weeks, I will be here. Please keep in touch; we may have need of your services sometime in the future.”
My friend approached everything with an attitude of positive expectancy. He called back every couple of weeks, and when he was in that area, he would often drop in and have a cup of coffee. Each time he’d get the same answer. The company was still waiting to finalize a couple of large contracts.
Nonetheless, he always treated the prospect well. He brought him information and gave him prices on his services. He called him on a regular basis and kept in touch with him by phone.
One day he walked in and the prospect said, “I am so glad you are here! We just got a $50 million contract for design, engineering, and construction, and we’re going to have to hire seventy workers over the next sixty days. Can you help us?”
He was ready. He made more than $200,000 in commissions over the next sixty days hiring and placing technical staff for this company. He earned more from that one contract than he was accustomed to making for two years of hard work. Keeping a positive attitude toward prospective customers is good business.
Keep Your Chin Up
Lack of enthusiasm is yet another major barrier to closing. Nothing will kill a sale faster than a salesperson who doesn’t seem to care about making the sale in the first place. Often this lack of enthusiasm is the result of fatigue.
To succeed in selling, you must have energy. You must really want to close sales. You must really crave the business. You must feel strongly that what you are selling is really advantageous for your customer. You must be keen and eager and possess the kind of emotional commitment that makes it clear to the prospect that you want to do business with him.
Never forget, selling is hard work. It is extraordinarily draining. Several hours of interacting with customers can tire you out completely. At the end of the day, you can be quite exhausted.
For this reason, if you are going to sell five days a week, you should go to bed early five days a week. Turn off the television, shut down the house, and get to bed by 10:00 PM. Get eight full hours of sleep prior to every selling day. When you are fully rested, you will have far more energy than at any other time. You will be ready to perform at your best.
The Customer Comes First
The ability to close a sale can also be hindered by a lack of sincerity. This often occurs when the salesperson becomes more concerned about earning the commission than with benefiting the customer. As soon as a salesperson begins to see the prospect as a source of money rather than as a person who needs help with a product or service, her tone of voice, body language, and attitude change. Once the salesperson starts thinking about the commission, the prospect starts feeling like a fish in a bowl with a cat looking on.
If you are going to sell five days a week, you should go to bed early five days a week. Turn off the television, shut down the house, and get to bed by 10:00 PM. Get eight full hours of sleep prior to every selling day.
Prospects are very perceptive. They pick up emotional vibrations from the salesperson. Prospects know when you are trying to help them, as opposed to trying to make a sale that will help you. It is essential that you keep your mind focused on what you can do for your customer. The sale and the commission will follow naturally.
Different Wavelengths
A common hindrance to closing arises when you find yourself with a prospect that is on a different wavelength from you. One of the most important rules I ever learned in sales was that “many people are prospects, but they are not all your prospects.”
Sometimes there is positive chemistry between you and the prospect; sometimes there is not. This does not mean that there is anything wrong with either of you. There is simply a mismatch of temperament. Somehow the two of you don’t get along very well. No matter how pleasant and polite you are, you find it impossible to build a friendly relationship.
Many people are prospects, but they are not all your prospects.
Perhaps you are well educated, but you are talking to an uneducated prospect. You may be an analytical person who finds yourself speaking with a people-driven or results-oriented individual. Maybe you are brisk, but your prospect is laid-back. This happens more often than not.
SAVE THE PROSPECT FOR YOUR COMPANY
If you find yourself on a different wavelength from your prospect, don’t take it personally. It will happen a lot. When it does happen, if you feel that the prospect is a good candidate for what you sell, try to save her for your company.
Instead of trying to build a relationship where it is not possible, suggest someone else in your company who is the “real expert” in this area. Who could get along better with this prospect? Introduce them to each other. You will be amazed at how many sales you can save by handing off a good prospect to someone else with whom she may have better chemistry.
Practice Tag-Team Selling
Many companies practice what is called tag-team selling. No prospect is allowed to permanently depart without having spoken to at least two salespeople. As soon as a salesperson realizes that he is not hitting it off with a particular customer, he quickly withdraws and suggests that the customer talk with someone else, whom he introduces as “someone who knows a lot more about this product than I do.”
Tag-team selling is used when there seems to be a difference or conflict of personalities. Sometimes the customer doesn’t like the salesperson, and the salesperson recognizes this. Maybe the salesperson doesn’t like the customer, which makes it impossible to sell. Occasionally, an older customer will not like a younger salesperson, or a woman will prefer to be sold to by another woman. Be alert and sensitive to the possibility that you and the customer are not right for each other, and try to save the sale for your company.
LIKING IS ESSENTIAL
There is an important truth in selling: you can never sell to someone you don’t like. If you don’t genuinely like and care about the prospect and sincerely want to help that prospect improve his or her life or work, you will not be successful selling to that person. No matter how hard you try or how warmly you smile, something about your attitude will give off negative vibrations that the prospect will pick up.
Whenever you find that there is lack of chemistry between you and a prospect, accept it as an unavoidable fact of life. If you are in a retail environment, excuse yourself for a moment and come back with someone else the prospect may like better than you. If you are calling on a prospect and you feel a lack of rapport, ask the prospect if you could come back and bring someone “who knows more than I do.”
In every case, get your ego out of the way. Focus on helping the customer solve his problem or satisfy his need by finding the right person to work with him. This is the mark of the true professional.
Once you have taken full control of your thinking and resolved to make sure that the prospect is ready to buy, you can proceed to the last big obstacle, answering objections.
Action Exercises:
1. Analyze your previous customers; what do your best customers have in common, and how could you spend more time with more people like them?
2. Identify your major competitors and determine at least three advantages that your products have over theirs; make these clear when your prospect mentions one of them.
3. Overcome your fear of rejection by confronting the fear over and over again; the more you do this, the more you realize that rejection is not personal.
4. Eliminate your fears of failure by developing the habit of doing whatever you are afraid to do; act as if it were impossible to fail, and it shall be.
5. Expect the best in every sales situation; treat every prospect as if he has the ability to buy a million dollars’ worth of what you sell.
6. Ask for testimonial letters from your satisfied customers; carry them with you and show them to neutralize sales resistance.
7. Identify the major fears that your prospects have that hold them back from buying, and then find a way to neutralize those fears.
It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.
—Gautama Buddha