CHAPTER
Professional Closing Techniques
Zig
According to sales trainer Chris Haggerty, 63 percent of all sales interviews end with no attempt to close. As a sales trainer, I can tell you that I’ve been on many a sales call where the salesperson talked and talked and talked, and finally the prospect would say, “Well, John, you’re not trying to sell me something, are you?” The salesperson would just throw up his hands, “Oh, no, no, no.”
Well, what are you? A professional visitor? As I understand it, the purpose of the call is to sell. Closing actually is an attitude. Closing is not pressure selling. Closing, however, is where we often are introduced to what we call the colorful salesman, simply meaning he’s yellow.
I love what my good friend Fred Smith says. A lot of times, some of our prospects are not quite as gentle with us as we wish they were. That’s another way of saying sometimes, not often, but sometimes, they’re downright ornery. They’re even rude and ugly. But Fred says when that happens, they’re not rude and ugly because they want to hurt you, but because in most cases they are hurting. Now, my friend, if you can understand and accept that, I can assure you that your attitude will be a lot better, and your results will be a lot better in the world of selling.
I love what Frank Bettger said a number of years ago: “When you forget yourself and remember what the other person gets out of the sale, all of your energy will be concentrated on the other person and their benefits.” When you’re handling it that way, in no way could you ever be accused of being manipulative or high-pressure. As a matter of fact, you will be practicing the philosophy we talk about so much: that you can have everything in life you want if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want.
Many years ago, or so the story goes, a fox and a rabbit were having a cool one in the local pub. The fox was doing a considerable amount of talking. He was bragging. He said, “You know, I have so many ways to get away from the hounds if any of them should come. I could either scoot up in the attic real quick, or I could hop out of here, and go down to the creek, and lose them in the water, or I could, for that matter, double-track and backtrack several times. I could lose them a dozen different ways, or go up a tree. There’s no way they’d ever get me.”
The rabbit said, “I’m afraid I can’t do all of those things. If the hound should come, all I can do is just run like a scared rabbit.” About that time, the baying of the hounds were heard close by. The fox said, “What should I do? Do I go up in the attic, or do I run out here and get in the stream and confuse them that way? Or should I get out there and backtrack a few times or climb up a tree?”
While he was mediating on the subject, the hounds came and ate him. Of course, the rabbit didn’t know all of those things. The minute he heard the hounds, he just ran like a scared rabbit.
What am I saying with that? I’m saying that it is better to know one or two or three good closes and use them professionally, than to know fifty closes and not use any of them.
But don’t you take too much comfort in what I just said. The real professional will learn a number of closes so well that they become an innate, subliminal, instinctive part of his repertoire so that he can use them at the time they’re needed.
You see, closing is an attitude, and believers are closers.
What do I mean by that? Several years ago I spoke for one of the major life insurance companies out on the West Coast. It was their national convention. They had their top people from all over the country along with their wives. There were about 2000 of them. I was having breakfast with the president, and we got to talking.
He explained to me that he could take any 100 of his salespeople, and provided they had been selling for at least one year, he could, without checking a single sales record, tell you within five percentage points what the entire group would produce for the year. He said, “You know, Zig, all I’d have to do is look at the amount of life insurance they carried on their own life, and then I could predict within five points what they were going to sell, because the depth of their belief in the product will determine their success in the sale of the product.”
If you’re selling Ford automobiles, you ought to be driving a Ford. If you’re selling Chevys, you ought to be driving a Chevy. When you believe in your product, you will be using that product. Now I don’t necessarily believe that if you sell 747s, you have to buy one, but I do believe that within reason, your belief ought to include yourself and your family.
The professional closer builds a closing consciousness just as a football player has a scoring consciousness, particularly when they get down close to the end zone. In the NFL, the last two minutes of the first half, and the last two minutes of the game, they will score 30 percent of their total scores, because they have drilled and planned. They have gotten that instinct up, and the game plan is there. So they score much more.
A lot of times I’ve heard a coach say, “We had them on the ropes, but we just didn’t put them away.” A lot of times we get within sight of the sale, and then we just don’t ask for the order. We don’t close.
Now let’s look at some closes or techniques which will produce some business and produce it at the time you really need it—or want it, I should say—and in most cases, that’s going to be right now.
A lot of times a prospect will say to you, “Your product costs too much.” A simple question will be helpful: “Mr. Prospect, wouldn’t you agree that it’s hard to pay too much for something you really want?”
It’s amazing, but if you’re selling a low-ticket item, a lot of times that really sets them to thinking, and they often will say, “You know, I never thought about it that way, and I really do like it.” If you’re selling an expensive item, all that will do will get their mind to function and thinking in the right direction. A lot of times, that’s the first step towards the close. A lot of times, though, they will still come back and say, “It costs too much.”
Then we respond with a question. “Wouldn’t you agree, Mr. Prospect, that it’s better to invest more than you planned instead of less than you should? If you invest more than you planned, you’re talking about pennies. If you invest less than you should, and it won’t do the job, then you’ve wasted it all.”
Let me get you ladies to answer a couple of questions, and see if we can establish what I mean. Do you have some cosmetics in the drawer at home that have been there for several months that you’re not using and you definitely know you’re never going to use? You’re not going to throw them away, because they’re still good, and it’d certainly be wasteful to throw them away, so you’ll wait another year or two, when they’re dried out and have no value at all. Then you can throw them away with a clear conscience.
Here’s my question, ladies. Wouldn’t it have been better to have invested a little more than you had planned instead of a little less than you did? You see, you’ve lost a whole package now. If you had invested a little bit more, it would have been pennies.
I’m not just talking about the ladies. Guess what Old Zig did one day before I lost this weight. I went to a suit sale. A beautiful $350 suit. This was some while back, and they had it on sale for $175. Now, it was not my size, but I was going to lose that weight. Half price on a deal like that—you bet you I bought it. Wore it one miserable time before the moths got to it. A hundred and seventy-five dollars to wear a suit one time? That’s an exorbitant price.
Yes, it is better to invest a little more than you had planned instead of a little less than you should. One way you’re talking about pennies; the other way you’re talking about real dollars.
The prospect might say, “It still costs too much.”
“Mr. Prospect, let me ask you this. Are you talking about price or cost?” A lot of times, a prospect is confused on that. Most of the time, they come back and say, “What do you mean, am I talking about price or cost?”
Let me share with you an example. It’s out of my own life. It happened to me, it’s legitimate, it’s real, but it’s important for you to understand that you’re going to have to take this example and make it applicable to your own situation.
When my son was six years old, we went down to get him a bicycle. This was sixteen years ago, so things have changed since then, but we went to the Schwinn bicycle shop, and the price of the bicycle was $64.95. At that time, $65 for a bicycle for a six-year-old who’s just going to tear it up anyhow was foolish.
So we went down to the economy bicycle shop, and we found a really neat little bicycle for just $34.95. That price was considerably less. We bought this one.
A couple of months later, when we went down to get the new handlebars, fortunately the bicycle was still under warranty, and it didn’t cost us anything. A month or two later, though, we went back to get some more new handlebars, and this time, we had to dig up $4.50 more. About six weeks later, the sprocket apparatus came completely unzipped. By the time they got through with that, it was $15 and change.
About a month later, the bearings in the front wheel came unzipped, and we went down again. This time they said $3, $4, $5, or $6. I’ve forgotten what it was, because I threw in the towel. I said, “No way.” At that point, we had invested $54.45 in that little bicycle. My son actually rode that bicycle about six months, not counting the down time, so the cost of that bicycle was $9 per month.
We went down and bought the Schwinn bicycle. My son actively rode that Schwinn bicycle for about five years. He played riding it an additional five years. By that I mean, he made a dirt bike out of it, and he and a couple of his buddies, big old boys, much too big for it, had a ball on that little bicycle. He had it for ten years.
The only additional expenses involved were for a couple of tires, which had nothing to do with the quality of the bicycle. After ten years, when you put your pencil to it, this bicycle cost us $6.50 per year. The price of the first bicycle was $34.95 initially. Its cost was $9 a month. The price of this bicycle was $64.95. Its cost was $6.50 a year.
You look at your prospect and you simply say, “Now, Mr. Prospect, you know price is a one-time thing. Cost is a lifetime thing as far as a product is concerned. A lot of people can beat us on price, but nobody can beat us on cost.” Obviously you want to make certain that statement is true. “Now I know you’re most concerned with cost, aren’t you?” Then it’s simply a matter of working out the details. “When would you like to start saving this money? Shall we put this on this program or this plan?”
Closing can be, should be, and often is simply a routine, follow-through procedure. Here’s one which is used more in the direct sales world and in real estate and several other areas, but because of changes in marketing strategies, it’s being used more and more in a lot of different ways.
When I started my sales career, this one was known as the granddaddy close; that’s the way they taught me. Other people called it the basic close; some call it the order-book close. About fifteen years ago, I met a young sales trainer named Gene Montrose up in Portland, Oregon, who identified this as the disclosure close. I believe that’s the best I’ve ever heard, and since then I’ve been using that.
Here’s the scene. You’ve demonstrated the product, the goods, or the services. At this point you need to communicate to the prospect exactly what the terms are. A lot of people don’t buy because they don’t really understand what the offer is. That sounds strange, but a lot of times, they really don’t understand whether it’s twelve payments at $18 or eighteen payments at $12. They don’t understand what they get with this particular price breakdown and what they get with the other one. So when I talk about disclosure, I’m really talking about clarification.
You lead into it, and it works like this. You have your materials out, your order book is there, and you say, “You know, Mr. or Mrs. Prospect, Uncle Sam enters our lives in a lot of different ways. One thing they did a few years ago, which we think is excellent, is they started requiring that all companies in this industry reveal the exact terms of the transaction, all of the hidden charges, to each customer. Legitimate companies are delighted to do that. Our company decided to take it one step further. Instead of just revealing to our customers all of the terms, they now require us to reveal to every single person we talk with exactly, written out in black and white, what the offer is.”
You’ve just laid the stage for writing the order. On the playback of this, you’ll really pick up on that. Then you say to your prospect, “For example, the serial number or product number we’ve been talking about is order number 98,” and you just write number 98. “The retail value of this is $399.95.” It’s not major, but I leave the dollar mark off on purpose. “The shipping and handling on this particular order is $20, and that brings it to $419.95. Uncle Sam steps into the picture along with the state, and they extract an additional $30, so the total price is $449.95.” If you’ll notice, I have not put their name on this.
Many times along about now, the prospect will say to you, “Wait a minute, I didn’t say I was going to buy anything.” Then you can honestly and legitimately look at the prospect and say, “Of course, you didn’t. As a matter of fact, Mr. Prospect, I don’t believe anybody, you or me either, would ever decide to buy or not to buy something until they had enough of the information or facts to make the decision. All I’m doing is giving you the exact offer.”
Many times they say, “OK.”
Then I would say, “Let me ask you question. If”—I use this word extremely hard—“if you were to go ahead with this, would it be more convenient to handle it on our $20 each month deposit program, or would you prefer the sixty-day cash plan?” You’ve just closed there on an alternate of choice. A lot of times they repeat it back: “If, now I did say if, I were to go ahead and get it, I’d have to handle it at the $20 deposit each month.”
Then we move into another alternate of choice, which really involves a minor decision, and a lot of times a minor decision will carry the major decision. “One thing I should mention, Mr. Prospect, is with this particular order, you have a couple of options. You can, for example, choose this electric keyboard to go with it, or it might be that you would prefer this entire set of cassettes to reinforce it.”
You could also offer a different item, like a knife sharpener or a cleaning brush. It doesn’t have to be anything at all other than something of another nature, like for example, “I neglected to mention this comes in two-tone brown and solid gray. Which would—” and the strong word in this case is would—“which would you prefer?”
If they say, “I suppose I would like this particular option,” then you simply take them one more step, and the word is in. “In getting this, would it make any difference whether the deposits fell on the first or the fifteenth, or would the twenty-fifth be better?”
Then they say, “It doesn’t really matter. Why don’t you put them on the twenty-fifth?” Now you obviously say, “This is Mr. and Mrs. J.J. Johnston, isn’t it?”
People say, “Ziglar, does that kind of stuff work?” I say, “No, not all the time,” but a good close is not going to make anybody buy anything they don’t want. But this particular thing clarifies what the offer is. On many occasions, I covered this, and then twenty minutes later, the prospect, having thought about it as we go through some other things, would say, “How long did you say those payments would be, and when would the first one be?”
They have gone back to their thought process, and so you still are in the sales ball game. This one reveals the information. Yes, the disclosure close is a very significant one. You’ve established something that includes that alternate of choice on two different occasions. That’s the minor decision we’re talking about.
Elmer Wheeler, one of the early great sales trainers in our country, used that one effectively. You might have heard the story. Back during the Depression, he was commissioned by the Walgreen Drug Company to see what he could do about building their counter business at the soda fountain. In those days, they sold an awful lot of malted milks. Eggs during the Depression were between 10 and 15 cents a dozen, but when they included an egg in a malted milk, they got an extra nickel for it, so you can see what impact that would have on the bottom line.
Elmer came up with one little thing. When somebody would come in and ordered a malted milk or a milkshake, the clerks were trained to pick up two eggs and say, “Did you want one egg or two with this milkshake?” The customer had not thought of an egg at all, but thinking that one was less than the two, they would often say, “One’s enough.” They sold hundreds of extra cases of eggs every week as a result of that.
The question often comes up, “When do you try to close?” You close early, you close often, and you close late, but don’t ever forget this: you never close, or attempt to close, until you’ve established value. A lot of times, little things make a big difference in whether or not we’re going to make a sale. Sometimes a sale is not selling somebody a product, goods, or services, but the sale is selling somebody on the idea of letting us represent them or giving us that job.
Hockfield & Associates, which is a manufacturers’ rep firm just outside of Chicago, recently got a major line to sell because of the way they answered the telephone. That’s right. They answered the telephone like we do: “Good morning, it’s a great day.” There were several other firms that were in competition. Everything else seemed to be equal, and the president of the company said, “This is what made the difference with us.” A little incidental thing can make the difference.
Several years ago, I was calling on a firm to sell them sales training. The size of the order that I was seeking was $18,000. That was the proposal. There were four guys involved, and they were very compatible. They were enthused about what we were doing, and they definitely were interested in buying. They said, “We’re going to talk it over, and weigh it and evaluate, and then we’ll get in touch with you.”
I smiled and said, “In other words, just as soon as you get around to it, you’ll be back to me.”
They said, “Yes, we will. You can absolutely count on it. When we get around to it, we’re definitely going to buy.”
My business card is a little unusual. It’s round, and on one side it has my name and address. On the other side it has a word. It’s T-U-I-T. I pulled four of these out. I handed it to the four guys and said to them, “Well, gentlemen, I know that you’re men of integrity, and when you say you’re going to do something as soon as you get around to it, I know you’re going to do it. So here’s your ‘round tuit.’”
They laughed uproariously and gave me the order. You might say, “Ziglar, you have to be kidding me. You mean they bought because you used a round tuit? No, that’s not the reason they bought. The reason they bought is they were sold on what we were doing, and they fully intended to buy. This was a humorous way to move them over into the purchase column. As I say, it is oftentimes a little thing that will make a difference in whether you get it or don’t get it.
Good closing is not always recognized even by those who are experts in the field. We built a home back in 1983 down at Holly Lake, which is 120 miles east of where we live in Dallas. That’s where we go to do our writing.
We were excited about that home, and Bill Tennyson was our builder. His wife is a famous interior designer. Her name is Joyce Winn, and she was most helpful. She was kind of thrown in the deal there if Bill built the house.
I shall never forget that day that we were there. We have a great room there. It’s beautiful. It’s thirty feet high. With a thirty-foot ceiling, you know you have a lot of wall space. One day we were down at the lake, and Bill and Joyce came by, and Joyce just happened to have a beautiful wall rug with her.
“You know, Zig,” she said, “I’ve been thinking about this. You all have this big, empty wall there, and I believe that this would really enhance the appearance.” You probably already suspect that since she decorates for beautiful hotels all over this country, this wasn’t exactly dime-store merchandise that she was presenting. When she told us what the investment would be, I didn’t exactly jump up and down and say, “Whoopee.” I said, “I don’t know about that, Joyce.”
“Well, Bill’s with me,” she said, “and I’ll tell you what let’s do. We’ll just go ahead and hang it, and it might fit, or it might not fit, but you let it hang there a couple of days, and then you’ll know.”
I said, “That’s fine. That makes sense to me.” They put the wall rug up.
Three hours later, in my jog, all of the sudden it hit me what she had done to me. One of the oldest of the old. That’s right. She had used that old puppy-dog close on me, and I don’t need to tell you this, but we still have that wall rug hanging there.
The most important factor as a closer is the integrity of the salesperson. This might shock you a little when I say this, but many times you’ll sell more by not selling at all. Although I said “many times,” in reality I don’t believe it will be many times. But I do believe there are those occasions when your integrity will be such that you won’t make the sale.
Let me give you a specific example. Several years ago at Christmas, we went down to get my son a bicycle. We walked into the Schwinn bicycle shop. Now I don’t speak bicycle. It’s a weird language. When I was a boy, we used to have wheels and spokes and handlebars and seats and brakes and that kind of stuff. Now it’s weird what stuff they have on it and what they call it.
We walked in, and the owner of the store was talking to a grandmother who had her grandson with her. She didn’t speak bicycle either, so she had an exact list. “This is the bicycle I want. The little boy across the street has this one. I’m going to get it for my grandson. Do you have this bicycle?”
The owner looked at it and said, “Yes. We have this exact bicycle, but ma’am, you’re grandson is too small for this bicycle. He needs one smaller than that. He can’t reach the pedals.”
She said, “Oh, no, I want the best you have. I want one just like the little boy’s across the street.”
The owner said, “Ma’am, this is exactly like it. Same quality, same price, same everything, but it’s a smaller size.”
“Absolutely not. I have to have exactly what the little boy across the street has.”
The owner said, “Ma’am, that bicycle would be dangerous. Your grandson cannot touch the pedals. If he should get out in the street, he would possibly lose control. There could be a tragic accident.”
“I want what I want, or I won’t get anything at all.”
The owner looked at her and said, “Ma’am, this is probably going to shock you, but I cannot sell you that bicycle. I could not sleep at night knowing that there was a chance that your grandson would lose control of this someday and maybe get injured. I can’t sell you the bicycle.”
Incredibly enough, the grandmother turned around and walked away in an absolute huff.
You might say, “Ziglar, do you take your integrity that far?” You bet you. You take your integrity that far.
Since then, we’ve had occasion to buy a couple more items in that bicycle shop. I would send my son or my granddaughters in there to this day with a signed check, amount left open, made out to that store, and say to them, “You buy from him. I know he will do exactly what is right.” That’s the way you build a career.
Professional salespeople see themselves in that light, and they also see themselves as closers. I’m reminded of a story from the Vietnam War. There was a major in the Hanoi Hilton. His name was Major Nesmith, and he was in there about six or seven years. He was an avid golfer, not the best one in town. He played about a ten handicap, but he loved to play. During those years of confinement, he played golf in his mind: eighteen holes every single day.
As he played this golf, he played it in its entirety. He visualized himself on the tee box. He visualized himself hitting the ball. He visualized and in his mind took exactly the same number of steps. He played golf a solid five hours every day, visualizing everything. When he was released, the first time back on the golf course, without having held a golf club in his hand for nearly seven years, he shot par golf. He had seen it all the way.
The professional salesperson sees themselves. They visualize exactly what they’re going to do. They practice, they learn, they study. The professional salesman is an incurable optimist. He’s the kind of guy who’d put a dime in the shopping meter while his wife goes shopping.
When I think of that, I think of my friend Tom Fountain, who ran a service station a number of years ago in Decatur, Georgia. I’ll never forget the day I met Tom. I pulled in, and it was raining cats and dogs. I coasted in.
As I pulled in, I hopped out of the car, I ran in, and I waved at him. “Don’t fill the tank now. Wait until it lets off a little bit.”
I walked in and said, “Man, this rain is really something, isn’t it?”
Old Tom said, “Yes, it’s absolutely beautiful.”
“Tom,” I said, “you’re the first service-station operator I’ve ever seen in my life that said it was beautiful to see rain. Why would you say a thing like that?”
“Ah, Zig,” he said, “at the moment, my gasoline business is down, but when we get a gully washer like this, you can’t believe the nails and the glass and all of the sharp objects that’s going to be washing out of driveways and yards out into the streets. We’re going to have more tire-repair work in the next week than we’ve had in the last three months. Ah, it is beautiful, Zig.” That’s the professional salesperson attitude, you see.
Another one Tom taught me is this. This was in the days when service stations were service stations; they would check the oil and the gas, and they’d always check the fan belt. When he found a faulty one, he’d always say to the owner, “You have a bad fan belt. You could be stranded out on the road at any time. If you would get your spare out of the trunk, I’ll put it on. It won’t take me but a minute.”
You know the rest of that story, don’t you? “I don’t have a spare back there.” Tom said, “Well, you really need a fan belt.”
The customer would say, “OK, let’s put one on.”
You know the rest of it, don’t you? You know he came out with two fan belts.
Old Tom told me, “Zig, about one time out of five, I sold an extra fan belt. I’ll never know how many people I kept from getting stranded in some small town late at night, but I feel good knowing that I probably did a lot of that.”
The last little example on selling. As you’ve heard me say, I believe closing is important. For example, you’re unemployed. You’re looking for a job, or you are a youngster looking for your first job. Or your company has closed down. You’d been occupied in one field, and now you’re in another one.
You’re applying for the job, and they ask that old, familiar question: “What is your experience?” If you say, “I’ve been in engineering all of my life. I haven’t had any experience in this department,” your chances of getting that job are greatly diminished.
But you can honestly look at that individual and say, “Sir, I’ve had twenty-two years’ experience in being on time every day for my job. I’ve twenty-two years’ experience of giving honest effort every time I show up, twenty-two years’ experience telling the truth, twenty-two years’ experience in knowing that my job depends on the profitability of your company. I have learned to work in such a way that it will ensure your profitability, not because I’m such a good guy, but because I want the security of the job. I’ve had twenty-two years’ experience in getting along well with those I work with and twenty-two years’ experience of having a winning attitude.
“As for technical expertise, I’ve had twenty-two years’ experience in learning, and I’m a good student. Sir, I believe that’s the kind of experience you need in your company. I can start immediately, or would next week work into your plans better?”
Yes, I believe everything is selling, and I believe that with the right words, the right voice inflection, and above all being the right person, you can close more sales.