I frequently get asked to come into Sales Meetings and train sales professionals on “Closing Techniques”. In my experience poor closing skills are rarely the real issue. Many times Senior Managers may think their problem is poor closing, however; it is often missed steps like building rapport, developing trust, poor qualification and questioning skills. I have created training sessions that focus on closing techniques but this training will be ineffective if you have missed these important steps in the sales process. I don’t care what clever closing techniques you might choose to use on your prospects, they will not work when you have missed steps in the sales process. In fact trying to close without establishing these steps could surely sabotage your sale.
Failure to build rapport, trust and clearly understand the client’s needs by asking questions and listening for buying signals will render 99% of all closing techniques useless. In fact, it is proven that just building rapport and trust alone can represent as much as 65% of a sale.
When you build rapport, you build trust, when you have trust you can ask any question easily, when you ask sincere questions, you develop further rapport and find out their needs and wants, when you find out needs and wants, you can figure out what to sell to them and when you sell then what they want, they just buy! Closing becomes a little step rather than a bridge to cross. I teach Sales People this, “People don’t care about what you have to sell, they care about what they want and need…so sell them what they want and need”.
Any “closing” training must first cover all the other important steps of a sale. Closing is but one step in a process and really the last step in a sales cycle. If the earlier steps are handled properly – then closing is actually a walk in the park. This is one of the important reasons we do our training in order of a sale because a sale follows a definitive cycle; or should follow a cycle. One step leads to another. And Yes, you will have times where the prospect may throw you a curve ball and you may have to adjust your cycle but for the most part when you stay on your sales cycle and don’t miss steps, the curve ball comes back your way in the end with a YES!
The one thing I teach Sales People is to never start the sale until you develop rapport and never close the sale until you have executed all the steps of the sale or you risk losing that prospect and that sale. Closing too soon is a mistake you will most likely never recover. Once you turn off the light of the prospect it is very difficult to turn it back on again. If you think back through times when you have purchased something can you recall being turned off by a Sales Person who attempted to close you without really knowing you or your needs? Remember what that felt like and make sure you never do it. Invest the time, follow a cycle, develop all of your sale and your sales skills, it’s why they call it a critical path because it is!
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