Closing techniques are as old as the sales profession: isn’t “Always Be Closing” the A-B-C of sales? Could this practice have anything to do with the sales profession being the least respected profession of all?
The world of sales has always revolved around the seller and the seller’s products or services, features, brand and so on. Too many salespeople still do dog-and-pony shows and apply all kinds of closing tricks from the puppy dog close to the take away close.
Most believe everyone can be sold or closed— qualified or not. They stick with their “tried and untrue” traditional sales and closing techniques, many of which do them more harm than good.
What effect does this have on the buyer? It gets their guard up.
Yet we still hear that if you don’t apply closing techniques, there is no sale. How buyer friendly is that?
Without a buyer there is no sale
Who is the most important person in a sales encounter— the buyer or the seller?
First of all, without a buyer there is no sale. Buyers today can buy anything they want without a salesperson wasting their time —the #1 complaint about salespeople.
In this new economy of buyers salespeople need to become more buyer focused and tap into the buying motives of the buyer. It has to be about the buyer—not the seller and the seller’s products, services or brand.
Are you in sales? When it comes to it, most of us are. Closing the sale is no longer a technique but part of a process to engage and empower buyers to buy from you.
You do that by being buyer focused— engaging buyers into the buying process by first gaining their trust and building a relationship. Building and maintaining the relationship, not the closing of a sale, should be your primary objective.
People buy from, and refer friends to people they trust, people they have a relationship with. First they must buy you. If done properly, you will never have to close again because they will buy from you.
Once rapport has been established and a relationship created you must qualify the buyer for buying motives, financial ability, decision making and timing. This will help you determine if the buyer is qualified and if there is a fit between your product or services and their needs, budget and timing.
If there is no fit, there is no need to close or use closing techniques— they are not qualified so don’t waste your time or theirs. Be honest. Tell them you cannot help them, unless you can refer them to someone who can. As a minimum, maintain the relationship for future opportunities and referrals.
If they are qualified, proceed to give them a prescription—solutions specific to the buying motives, financial ability and timing identified and empower them to buy.
The experience of having a buyer buy, versus you closing them, creates a stronger and longer lasting relationship. Combine this with added value and you have a formula that will lead to more referrals and a secondary sales force.
So, what do you think? Do closing techniques still work?
Bob Urichuck is an internationally renowned Velocity Selling Specialist, the creator of the ‘Buyer Focused” Velocity Selling System and a virtual sales training platform,VelocitySelling.com. With some fifty years of sales experience, ranging from door-to-door sales to corporate high-value boardroom sales, he has accumulated a wealth of experience in selling to individuals and big corporations.
For the last twenty years, Bob has inspired, educated and empowered Fortune 500 companies and mid-sized businesses to increase the velocity of their sales and the strength of their bottom lines. Using Singapore, Dubai and Ottawa, Canada, as his ongoing hubs, he has spoken in more than 1,500 cities in over forty-five countries to audiences of up to 10,000 people.
Bob has been recognized as Consummate Speaker of the year and ranked in the top 10 of the World’s Top 30 Sales Gurus since 2008.
He is a Certified Sales Professional, Certified Master Trainer and Certified Social Entrepreneur who has adopted through Free the Children a village in Sri Lanka where he is financially responsible for the medical care and education of over 700 children who survived the deadly tsunami of 2004.
Websites: www.BobU.com; www.VelocitySelling.com; www.velocitysellingbook.com
Velocity Selling: How to Attract, Engage, and Empower Buyers to Buy can be purchased from Amazon, www.BarnesandNoble.com and through all major booksellers
