By Troy Harrison – Sales Navigator
I’m constantly asked, “Troy, can you teach my salespeople how to close a sale?” My answer is, “Sure. It can take either 10 minutes or two days, depending on what you’re looking for.” What I mean by that is this: While closing is a vital part of selling, it’s the culmination of the Buyer’s Journey, which is a longer process – and teaching that process is part of my two-day training class. The “closing” unit is about 10-15 minutes of that. More important than knowing HOW to close a sale is WHENto close the sale.
When should you close? One old philosophy says that you badger the customer with closing questions from the time they enter your showroom. This old A/B/C (Always Be Closing) philosophy has done more to kill sales and irritate customers than anything else salespeople do – and yet, I still hear people who should know better pushing this approach. Today’s empowered buyers won’t stand for A/B/C and they’ll run from you. There’s a right way, though, and let’s find it, shall we?
A/B/C is very much a 1970’s sales approach. Today’s customers are more savvy, more educated, have more information available to them, and ultimately have been trained by years of salespeople using heavy-handed sales tactics, and are more capable than ever to resist. This means that today’s customer responds to an approach that is more customer-friendly and respectful.
First, let’s look at what it takes for a customer to buy:
- The customer must be motivated; e. the customer feels dissatisfaction with the status quo and is envisioning a desired future state where dissatisfaction is removed and their situation is improved.