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Will You Add? - Closing the Sale
MOMENTUMThink of a period of time when you were so engrossed in what you were doing, that almost every moment of every day felt productive. When things are going right, energy flows, and action propels us forward. Candice Carpenter in the book Chapters describes this feeling as being in "the zone". When we are operating on momentum it is easy to lose ourselves in our passion.The reality is that no one stays in this kind of high-energy state forever. We transition between periods when we are firing on all cylinders, to times when we aren't as motivated, to times when we feel just plain stuck.When things are NOT flowing, it can be hard to gain momentum. We may struggle with a complex business problem and feel overwhelmed. And sometimes, it's hard to even define the problem - we just know something isn't "right". Everyone goes through down or less-than-optimal operating periods. However, sometimes they go on too long, and we are ready to move on, but can't seem to figure out how.BACK TO BASICSIn a car, an automatic transmission works just fine, but car enthusiasts will tell you that a manual transmission is the only way to go, even though it requires more effort and concentration. Why? Because a manual transmissio
Eating the soup is like closing sales. There’s no way I’d ever dive into the soup, take an enormous spoonful and gulp it down. I’d scoop up a little, blow on it, feel the steam with my top lip, take a sip and only then would I take a decent mouthful.
Closing the sale is the same concept. You wouldn’t go charging in would you?
“Would you like to sign the paperwork now, Mrs Brown” you say five minutes into the sale. You’d end up with a handbag around your chops!
No, you’d wait until Mrs Brown was ready to buy your product or service and only then woul
Some experts offer to divide all BPO companies into two main groups: back office BPO companies and front office BPO companies, depending on the nature of work and the necessity to be or not to be in contact with customers. Further, the BPO companies are divided into offshore outsourcing, nearshore outsourcing and onshore outsourcing businesses, depending on the country, where the outsourcer is situated.Some of the most widely spread BPO companies are represented by call centers, data entry specialists, offshore bookkeepers, tax preparation specialists, accountants, email answering specialists, online customer support, image processing specialists, form processing specialists, hr help, translators, copywriters, transcription specialists, billing services , database marketers, telemarketers, web sales and marketing professionals, and many other specialists. This list is constantly expanding.In most cases, BPO companies are located overseas. Despite the seeming inconvenience of hiring an overseas specialist, and not being able to fully control the work of such an employee, BPO companies remain one of the fastest growing industries in today’s so much globalised offshore IT market. What are the reasons for such a phenomenon? There ar
I recall the day effortlessly. I’d been busy selling mortgages to customers of an estate agency in the 1980’s and we had a new National Sales Director appointed. Now he was a pretty fierce individual. A big man with an equally big voice who had a reputation for reducing sales people to tears if you ever crossed him.
He came to visit us all on a one to one basis to see how we were doing and to get to know us, I guess. But I wasn’t looking forward to the meeting. You see up until that moment, selling mortgages in the estate agency was really easy. I’m certainly not bragging here…I was very young and people just wanted me to arrange their mortgage and policies. They asked me to do the business and I just gave them information and advice and filled in the forms. It was a gravy chain. It was a massive property market with fewer players than there are today.
Then it all stopped. August 1998 it was and the market collapsed and selling mortgages became depressingly difficult.
In our meeting the sales director asked me lots of question about my selling process and could see that the previous year I had arranged hundreds of mortgages for customers. Next he asked me how I closed the sale. I had no idea what he meant and it was obvious. He then asked how I got people to commit. Again I had no answer. “I guess they just did it” was my meek reply. He then stood up and in a forceful gruff voice shouted, “well in this new market you might as well give up selling then” and he stormed out.
Expecting the sack imminently I was pleasantly surprised to see my name on the next sales training enrolment list. Yes, as you can appreciate Paul Archer was whisked off for some sales training where everything became very clear. In sales you have to close the sale. That’s it. Fullstop. Closing is the one skill that every sales person, what ever you’re selling, just has to do.
But that’s the problem, as I see it. Closing the sale has become synonymous with slick sales’ey types. Sharp suits and sharp closing techniques. The books and tapes cry out for you to “close the sale”, “overcome objections”, “win the sale”, “ask for the order”…and it all gets a little too much for the average sales person.
So I’d like to give you my take on closing the sale. A method which you’ll not notice that you’re actually closing the sale according to the tapes and sales books out there. A method in which the customer doesn’t know they’re being closed and no fancy technique is being used. It’s clean, tidy, easy to do and incredibly customer focussed. And that is what rapport selling is all about.
It’s like eating soup…
Eating Soup
For lunch my wife and I had her home made turkey soup. Yes, you’re right, Christmas wasn’t long ago and the carcass has been boiling on the stove all day. My wife’s turkey soup is famous because it feeds my whole family for days and is absolutely delicious.
Eating the soup is like closing sales. There’s no way I’d ever dive into the soup, take an enormous spoonful and gulp it down. I’d scoop up a little, blow on it, feel the steam with my top lip, take a sip and only then would I take a decent mouthful.
Closing the sale is the same concept. You wouldn’t go charging in would you?
“Would you like to sign the paperwork now, Mrs Brown” you say five minutes into the sale. You’d end up with a handbag around your chops!
No, you’d wait until Mrs Brown was ready to buy your product or service and only then would
All businesses or companies need asset management; whether you are in retail, manufacturing, public relations, a call center etc. Now, what is asset management actually? This kind of management can be defined as the process by which you can manage your assets to the best of your ability. In order to do so, you and your company's key persons will need to know the strengths and weaknesses of the assets. This is the only way to know how to optimize their use.Software for Asset Management and StrategyFor years, asset management has been done manually, with a number of registers and files to keep records. This was not the most time efficient and easy way to track assets. However, with the twenty-first century bringing us great computers blended with advanced and upgraded technology,asset management has been facilitated through computers and this has been made possible with asset management software. This is software that enables people to deal with asset management at the press of the button.The software for managing assets that are available today is able to keep track of the value, use, depreciation, and utility age of any asset. This advanced software can highlight what the maintenance requirements are, when the assets would
Then it all stopped. August 1998 it was and the market collapsed and selling mortgages became depressingly difficult.
In our meeting the sales director asked me lots of question about my selling process and could see that the previous year I had arranged hundreds of mortgages for customers. Next he asked me how I closed the sale. I had no idea what he meant and it was obvious. He then asked how I got people to commit. Again I had no answer. “I guess they just did it” was my meek reply. He then stood up and in a forceful gruff voice shouted, “well in this new market you might as well give up selling then” and he stormed out.
Expecting the sack imminently I was pleasantly surprised to see my name on the next sales training enrolment list. Yes, as you can appreciate Paul Archer was whisked off for some sales training where everything became very clear. In sales you have to close the sale. That’s it. Fullstop. Closing is the one skill that every sales person, what ever you’re selling, just has to do.
But that’s the problem, as I see it. Closing the sale has become synonymous with slick sales’ey types. Sharp suits and sharp closing techniques. The books and tapes cry out for you to “close the sale”, “overcome objections”, “win the sale”, “ask for the order”…and it all gets a little too much for the average sales person.
So I’d like to give you my take on closing the sale. A method which you’ll not notice that you’re actually closing the sale according to the tapes and sales books out there. A method in which the customer doesn’t know they’re being closed and no fancy technique is being used. It’s clean, tidy, easy to do and incredibly customer focussed. And that is what rapport selling is all about.
It’s like eating soup…
Eating Soup
For lunch my wife and I had her home made turkey soup. Yes, you’re right, Christmas wasn’t long ago and the carcass has been boiling on the stove all day. My wife’s turkey soup is famous because it feeds my whole family for days and is absolutely delicious.
Eating the soup is like closing sales. There’s no way I’d ever dive into the soup, take an enormous spoonful and gulp it down. I’d scoop up a little, blow on it, feel the steam with my top lip, take a sip and only then would I take a decent mouthful.
Closing the sale is the same concept. You wouldn’t go charging in would you?
“Would you like to sign the paperwork now, Mrs Brown” you say five minutes into the sale. You’d end up with a handbag around your chops!
No, you’d wait until Mrs Brown was ready to buy your product or service and only then woul
Do you have too many customers? Are you making too much money? Does everyone want to buy your products or services without even talking to you? If so, you must be miserable. Making a good living and having a sound business is only rewarding for people who really want to work. If your money-making business is ruining your life, you must take action now. Don’t wait for a heart attack or a family catastrophe! You, my friend, must start driving customers away NOW. You must learn to TURN AWAY business! In case you are having a difficult time figuring out how to do that, just follow these simple steps and you should cut your sales volume in NO time!1. Don’t answer your phone. Ever. When people are calling you, ignore them. They might actually want to ask you questions or (heaven forbid) ORDER something. These calls can severely interfere with your TV shows, so unplug the phone and enjoy a little Jerry Springer! This should get rid of those pesky customers fairly easily.2. Don’t return phone calls. Sometimes, those annoying customers will actually go so far as to leave you a message. Who do they think they are, anyway? Whatever you do, do NOT call them back. They might see this as a sign of encouragement and continue t
Expecting the sack imminently I was pleasantly surprised to see my name on the next sales training enrolment list. Yes, as you can appreciate Paul Archer was whisked off for some sales training where everything became very clear. In sales you have to close the sale. That’s it. Fullstop. Closing is the one skill that every sales person, what ever you’re selling, just has to do.
But that’s the problem, as I see it. Closing the sale has become synonymous with slick sales’ey types. Sharp suits and sharp closing techniques. The books and tapes cry out for you to “close the sale”, “overcome objections”, “win the sale”, “ask for the order”…and it all gets a little too much for the average sales person.
So I’d like to give you my take on closing the sale. A method which you’ll not notice that you’re actually closing the sale according to the tapes and sales books out there. A method in which the customer doesn’t know they’re being closed and no fancy technique is being used. It’s clean, tidy, easy to do and incredibly customer focussed. And that is what rapport selling is all about.
It’s like eating soup…
Eating Soup
For lunch my wife and I had her home made turkey soup. Yes, you’re right, Christmas wasn’t long ago and the carcass has been boiling on the stove all day. My wife’s turkey soup is famous because it feeds my whole family for days and is absolutely delicious.
Eating the soup is like closing sales. There’s no way I’d ever dive into the soup, take an enormous spoonful and gulp it down. I’d scoop up a little, blow on it, feel the steam with my top lip, take a sip and only then would I take a decent mouthful.
Closing the sale is the same concept. You wouldn’t go charging in would you?
“Would you like to sign the paperwork now, Mrs Brown” you say five minutes into the sale. You’d end up with a handbag around your chops!
No, you’d wait until Mrs Brown was ready to buy your product or service and only then woul
Any retailer will tell you that today’s consumer is most definitely a savvy shopper. Manufacturers of consumer products are under more and more pressure to make their products more appealing to shoppers, lest they lose their business to one of the many competitors in the market. As a result, many companies are relying on packaging innovations to make their goods more appealing. One such type of packaging that is having a sizeable impact on the retail industry are standup pouches.Stand up pouches are typically made of high-quality plastic, aluminum, or a blend of the two laminated together. They are available in any number of shapes and sizes, and are completely customizable to your needs. Consumers in particular like standup pouch packaging because they can be resealed once they are opened, either via a squeeze zipper, a sliding zipper, or even a spout.The zip seals on stand up pouches are so popular with end users that they have become an expectation, rather than a nice-to-have feature. They like not only the added safety of being able to protect a product from exposure once the package has been opened, but they also like the convenience of not having to place the package contents into another container after opening.Manufa
So I’d like to give you my take on closing the sale. A method which you’ll not notice that you’re actually closing the sale according to the tapes and sales books out there. A method in which the customer doesn’t know they’re being closed and no fancy technique is being used. It’s clean, tidy, easy to do and incredibly customer focussed. And that is what rapport selling is all about.
It’s like eating soup…
Eating Soup
For lunch my wife and I had her home made turkey soup. Yes, you’re right, Christmas wasn’t long ago and the carcass has been boiling on the stove all day. My wife’s turkey soup is famous because it feeds my whole family for days and is absolutely delicious.
Eating the soup is like closing sales. There’s no way I’d ever dive into the soup, take an enormous spoonful and gulp it down. I’d scoop up a little, blow on it, feel the steam with my top lip, take a sip and only then would I take a decent mouthful.
Closing the sale is the same concept. You wouldn’t go charging in would you?
“Would you like to sign the paperwork now, Mrs Brown” you say five minutes into the sale. You’d end up with a handbag around your chops!
No, you’d wait until Mrs Brown was ready to buy your product or service and only then woul
A Marketing RiddleQuestion: What am I? I am the best low-cost marketing strategy in the world, I’m cheap, but few businesses use me.Answer: Credibility!Or for you real estate guru’s, what are the 3 most important elements of marketing:1. Credibility 2. Credibility 3. CredibilityCredibility is being believed and trusted by your customers and potential customers. You can’t buy it. No amount of advertising or promotion can hand it to you on a platter. Yet you can achieve credibility by trusting in and using your own product expertise.Gaining credibility is the best marketing strategy in the world. And it is the cheapest. It can have an enormous impact on income, and it can achieve rapid results. You will be amazed at how easy it is and the difference it will make. You can start immediately.‘Buy this because it’s good’.Most businesses sell their products and services just by talking about their features and benefits. They do not prove any particular expertise in their industry, or even in the product. They just basically say, ‘Buy this because it’s good’. The more they say it and the better the message looks, the more they congratulate themselves on a successful marketin
Eating the soup is like closing sales. There’s no way I’d ever dive into the soup, take an enormous spoonful and gulp it down. I’d scoop up a little, blow on it, feel the steam with my top lip, take a sip and only then would I take a decent mouthful.
Closing the sale is the same concept. You wouldn’t go charging in would you?
“Would you like to sign the paperwork now, Mrs Brown” you say five minutes into the sale. You’d end up with a handbag around your chops!
No, you’d wait until Mrs Brown was ready to buy your product or service and only then would you ask. You have a much better chance then of getting a yes rather than a refusal. And nobody likes to be refused, which is another reason why plenty of sales people don’t ever ask for the sale…they don’t like to be rejected.
If you test the soup first to see how hot it is, you’ll not burn your tongue. Likewise if you test the customer first, you’ll not spoil the deal. So how do you do this?
It’s like dating in your early teens. Before you asked the person out for the date of their dreams you checked with their friends to see if they were seeing anyone else and you might even have spoken to their best friends to assess your chances. Only then did you pluck up enough courage to ask them out. People that didn’t follow this rule were either really successful in the dating stakes or had red cheeks from all those slaps!
Now I do know of salespeople who are like this. They are so hardened to rejection, that they don’t really care any more and just ask everyone. The double glazing cold calling merchants are like this. You say “no” so they go onto the next customer…eventually someone is going to say yes.
But I don’t like to teach selling that way…I like to enjoy my job and the rapport we build with customers.
It’s all about asking questions…
It’s all about asking questions
The three types of questions you will want to ask leading up to the close are testing questions to feel the temperature of the soup, trial questions to taste a little of the soup and then closing questions to drink the soup.
Testing questions
Throughout the sales meeting you’ll want to see how the customer is feeling about your product or service. Are they warming to you and the product or not?
You can tell all is going well verbally and non-verbally. Verbally the customer is replying to your questions positively.
“How do you feel about those benefits?” “They sound good”
“Does it all make sense so far?” “Yes thank you”
“Have I missed anything you’d like to know about?” “No, everything’s been covered.”
Non verbally the customer will be leaning forward, attentive towards you, giving you appropriate eye contact.
The opposite here is leaning backwards and various limbs crossed Try placing documents or brochures in the middle of the table. If they take them, this is a sign of non verbal acceptance
These verbal and non verbal reactions are known as buying signals in the trade. You need to see them happening right in front of you so turn on those observation and listening skills.
Trial Questions
Back to my dating analogy, I remember when I met my wife at a party for the first time. Obviously she wasn’t my wife then! “Claire” I said getting terribly tongue tied, “hypothetically speaking, if I was to take you out one evening,
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