Closing Techniques Don’t Win Sales

The acronym EASE, breaks down into the four parts of any sales call, Earn the Right; Ask the Appropriate Questions; Solve the Problem and Execute the Solution.

It comes from one my books and we built the Varda Kreuz Foundation Level Workshops around it. During the first part of those Foundation Level Workshops, when we discuss with delegates what they’d most like to achieve, a large percentage regularly remark that,

“I just want to improve my closing, that’s all I need really. If I could close more sales everything else would fall into place.”

Which is partly true, however the ability to close effectively doesn’t have its origins in the fourth quarter of the sales process.

Anthony Robbins tells a great story about his meeting with a client, a plastic surgeon. He arrives early and while he’s in the waiting room, he picks up a book which the plastic surgeon has written.

As Anthony Robbins turns the pages, he sees pictures of the most beautiful people on earth, all surrounded by mathematical equations. This surgeon had actually worked out what it took to possess, and then how to create, the perfect face.

It turns out that, if the philtrum (the groove between your nose and top lip) is exactly the same size as your eye, your face would be in perfect balance – the perfect face.

One millimetre out and you have an average face, two millimetres out (according to Anthony Robbins) and you’re butt-ugly.

One millimetre out! Isn’t it amazing that something so small can make so much difference?

Let’s change the analogy.

Imagine if you’re sailing from Portsmouth, in the UK, to New York and your course starts out just one degree off.

One degree out doesn’t get you just outside New York – your little boat would find itself all the way up in Canada.

And it’s the same with every sales situation you’ll ever walk into.

If you don’t Earn the Right to sell to them, to be allowed to progress through each and every stage, right from the beginning – even misjudging it by the tiniest degree – you’ll end up miles away from a “Yes” by the time you get to your well-practised close, without even realising where it all went wrong.

Which is when most prospects turn round and say;

“Do you know what, I’m going to have to think about it!”

If you like – it’s at that point you could try to bully them with a couple of “sales mind tricks” – although I wouldn’t hold out much hope with an experienced buyer.

What the Buyers said

“Why do some salespeople think they’re being so clever? I see salespeople every day, how do they think some sleazy, worn out way of phrasing a close is suddenly going to make me change my mind? ”

“Salespeople should be honest. If they don’t know the answer to a question they should hold their hands up and say – sorry I don’t know the answer to that but I will find out and get back to you – rather than guess and are invariably wrong!”

Solution

Walk in understanding that if you don’t earn their trust at the beginning and throughout your conversation and presentation, they sure as hell won’t trust you with their money at the end.

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The piece above is taken from an article which appeared in this month’s Institute of Sales & Marketing Management’s Winning Edge Magazine – after asking almost half a million professional buyers one simple question; “How do most sales people let themselves down?”

Once I’d worked my way through the answers, it turned out there were 7 recurring issues that cause salespeople to lose the sales they really should have won – here’s a sneak peek of the entire article if you missed it.

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Thanks for reading this article. On my blog, I regularly write about Sales, Sales Management and Customer Service issues, topics and trends.

I’d also be delighted to connect via Twitter and of course, through Varda Kreuz Training.

Here are some of my other recent posts:

If You think It’s All About Price – Get Out of Sales

Top 3 on Amazon Best Sellers – Thanks

Are Your Sales Team Managing You?

Is Your Sales Team Culture Pirate Ship or Battleship?

About: Chris Murray is founder and Managing Director of Varda Kreuz Training, a company created to deliver sales training that really works – not in theory and not just sometimes, but sales training that really works. You can find out more about Varda Kreuz Training HERE or give us a call right now on 0844 923 9777 (UK)

His latest book, The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club has been heralded as the Da Vinci Code for salespeople.

How to Close in 30 Seconds

“Life is often compared to a marathon, but I think it is more like being a sprinter; long stretches of hard work punctuated by brief moments in which we are given the opportunity to perform at our best.” Michael Johnson

Ah, the old 30 second close.

No one likes to hang around any longer than they need to – get in there, get the business and get out!

At the beginning of most foundation level sales training courses a large percentage of delegates tell me they want to get better at closing.

They want to know the trick, the secret words; the hypnotic, mind controlling formula that will move the prospects hand towards the pen and close the deal.

So I thought I’d share it with you.

There’s a little bit of preparatory ground work, but on the whole this should work for you in around 50 – 75% of all real life sales situations.

First of all you’ve got to “Earn the Right” to sell to them.

They don’t know you, they don’t trust you – they believe that all sales people are there to rip them off (and most are); they think that you only have your own interests at heart and that your priorities and objectives will override any empathy or concern with regards to their actual problems.

You must enter this situation wanting to genuinely help these people with the product or service that you believe will solve a problem for them.

You have to present yourself in a professional manner, as the expert in the room you must instil enough confidence for them to go with your final recommendation.

That will come primarily from their first impressions, your overall appearance and mannerisms, how you conduct yourself in the meeting, your preparation and eventual presentation

Once you have established a genuine (unsleazy and sincere) rapport with your prospects and have earned the right to sell to them, you can move on

The next thing to do is “Ask the Appropriate Questions”.

Remember, this is not an interrogation, it is a business meeting – being able to understand a situation well enough to present a solution needs a particular set of questioning skills and the equally important ability to listen to the answers.

You should ask questions that enable the customer to get everything off their chest, while telling you what you need to know.

Once you understand that well enough – to the satisfaction of the prospect – you can move on to the next bit.

Now that you fully understand the situation and know what it is that you have within your toolbox which will be truly beneficial to the customer, you present it professionally and effectively and “Solve the Problem”.

This is where you run through everything that the customer needs, match this to their budget and expectations and present the solution.

Sure you’ll get a couple of objections, but that’s just the customer trying to feel their way around in the dark.

They’re asking questions and raising possible problematic situations – that is actually a good thing, they are imagining themselves owning what you are selling and they need to be assured that it will stand up to their mental road test.

Have a read of “Dealing with Objections” at this link to get a couple of ideas and techniques for breaking through the road block.

And now you are ready to “Execute the Solution”.

Just as long as you have;

• Earned the right to be viewed as a trusted professional within your industry
• Identified and emphasised with the prospects problems and issues relating to your product or service.
• Matched and presented a suitable solution to the problem; taking into consideration budget, time frame and levels of expectation.
• Put the prospects mind at ease with regard to all objections and concerns.

You can take the next 30 Seconds to close the sale!

All you do now is review all the major points to make sure that you and your customer are still on the same page (which will take around 28 seconds) and then ask an openly phrased closing question (about 2 seconds), such as;

“So when would you like it?”
“How many are you going to need?”
“What colour will you have – red or blue?”
“How would you like to pay?”

A farmer’s work isn’t confined simply to harvest time and an Olympic sprinter doesn’t simply turn up to a 10 second race.

Farmer, sprinter or salesperson the rewards you reap depend upon the amount of intelligent effort put in hours, days, months (and sometimes years) beforehand.

Closing in 30 seconds is a piece of cake – but being ready to do so, is whole different newsletter.

“Instead of thinking about where you are, think about where you want to be. It takes twenty years of hard work to become an overnight success.” Diana Rankin

“Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.” Sam Ewing

Until next time

Chris

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This year, I want to help you and your sales team become more successful than they’ve ever been before – call my office now on
0844 293 9777 or request a call back by going to our Contact Page HERE.

You and I can work out a sales training programme that suits your requirements perfectly – foundation level sales training, field sales training, account management training, selling value over price, FMCG sales training, customer service training, whatever it might be – but it’s a big old world out there and if you don’t take two minutes to invite me over, I may never know you need me.

We create bespoke sales training days from as little as £228 per person, so give my office a call today and we can get a date in the diary to start working on tailoring something just for you.

Chris Murray

0844 293 9777

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