How to Close
Quality At Bats – The Barry Bonds Story (not every at bat was a home run)
What is the close?
It is the section of the sales presentation where you ‘ask for commitment’
The close is the natural conclusion to a well delivered presentation
The way you close is to decide ‘before’ the presentation starts how you are going to close.
Think of the presentation from the end to the beginning. (Not the beginning to end)
Imagine how the close is going to go.
Think about how you are going to explain the next steps.
Decide in advance what you are going to say in the close.
Practice, practice, practice
The most successful people I have ever met in closing did the same thing over and over again.
I watched one of my mentors close about 50 times. Each close was exactly the same!
Human beings respond in patterns. When you find a pattern that moves people to action you can repeat the steps over and over and over and move many people to action.
There are 3 ways to improve your closing
The Inner Game of Closing
The Outer Game of Closing
Action
Embrace the idea that:
- Selling equals Service
- Sell from honesty, integrity, and compassion
- Selling is about leading
- Selling is about moving people to action
Embrace scripting
The definition of a script is “words in sequence that have meaning”
Reasons why salespeople don’t used scripts.
Don’t want to sound canned or rehearsed (a good script won’t)
I use scripts because they work. They are good for me and good for the customer or client. Scripts are the easiest, most effective way to ‘move someone to action’.
Scripts have two components:
Language
Structure
The language includes the words, the tonality, the speech rate, body language, and pausing
Selling is a thinking man’s game. Selling is a thinking woman’s game. When you sell look for angles.
Closing Techniques (more later)
Contrast – Think about how you can use contrast in your selling
Preframe – Let someone know in advance what is going to happen.
In order for me to meet with you I need you and your spouse at the appointment. Will that work for you?
Silence …
Ask a question for commitment and be silent. When I close one on one I always use this technique.
Alternate of choice close:
We accept Visa, American Express, Discover, or MasterCard. Which card would you like to use.
Ask
Would you like to go to lunch?
Sympathy close
It would really help me out if you could buy some cookies from my daughter for the girl scouts. Most people are buying 5 boxes could you buy at least 2?
Scarcity
I only work with a few key people directly …
The big idea of today is to prepare in advance how you are going to close and then go and implement.
