Providing Sales People with…

Closing the sale is the sharp end of the sales process.

It is the part where even the slightest hiccup means that you will be feeding the ducks instead of sipping champagne that evening. Salespeople without the consultative sales skills who cannot close are merely commercial visitors, and there is no line on any corporate balance sheet with any upside financial benefit for corporate visitors.

Unless you are good at closing the sale, you are not paid. Nor is the company who employs you paid. However, to get to the point where you can successfully close, you must have first applied all the right sales techniques from your modern sales skills training that you may have picked up from your last sales skills training session and done everything correctly. Sorry but, there are no magic closes that can make up for poor prospecting, poor qualifying, poor discovery, poor demonstration, poor product knowledge, and poor handling of objections.

Business to business selling is all about preparation

With business to business sales skills it is all about preparation. You must know how to ask for the order and have confidence in yourself, your company and your product and service to be sure that what the client is paying you for will reap them a financial reward far greater than the amount you are asking for.

A dynamic, never to be forgotten, business presentation has to captivate your audience and be a vital part of closing the sale. They don’t care about the presenter, or their sales skills, nearly as much as they care about themselves and their company. But, if the presenter is poor at closing the sale they will think poorly of your company. Like I have recommended with your modern sales skills, practice your delivery repeatedly. Take out all the imperfections.

Remember the ‘KISS”

Most of all when honing sales skills remember the principle “KISS”, keep it simple salesperson. Be natural, work the audience one at a time, in a natural manner. Leave humour out of the close, they haven’t got time to laugh at this point; this is the serious end of the business presentation. Use a simple prop that masks sales skills but conveys a powerful message and exemplifies a key point or theme like my arrow man did. Talk about them and your solution and when closing the sale express all benefits as Return on Investment. (ROI).

Never leave the client wondering…

Most of all never leave people wondering what you said. Explain terms and acronyms if you must use them at all while closing the sale. It all comes down to what your audience walks away with in the end. Did you deliver another boring business presentation? Or, did you use your sales skills gained from all those sales skills courses and persuade or motivate everyone to action?

When closing the sale I prefer to soften the word ‘sign’, which rather conjures up thoughts of ‘signing your life away’ in the prospects mind by using the word ‘authorise’. The book has many examples of different closing techniques, sales skills, closing the sale questions, closing the sale tips, methods closing sale and closing the sale techniques. These are the exact sales skills and techniques used by top salespeople for closing the sale that you should modify to suit your individual circumstances. Take these suggested statements, adapt them to suit you, then commit them to memory and practise out loud until you can recite each one of them verbatim in your sleep. Closing the sale will then become automatic.

Now, what are you waiting for…

Some salespeople with modern sales skills just sit around waiting for the right psychological moment to make a sales call. Well congratulations you have just arrived at that precise moment. You are in closing the sale business. Selling takes courage, but often the things that take the most courage bring the biggest rewards. Now, what are you waiting for? Make it your best year ever, and answer the question posed at the beginning of this article by getting a copy of Sales Drive: the definitive street-smart ‘no-brainer’ guide to Sales Stardom!

Before you know it you will be out there and start closing the sale more often!

You will be the Sales Star!

*Jack Zufelt was selected by Winners Digest, a publication for Fortune 500 Executives, as one of the two most effective speakers in the U.S. The other was elected President of the United States that year.

*He was honored by the United States Senate for teaching Americans how to achieve better results in their personal lives and careers.

*Zufelt was selected by Winners Digest, a publication for Fortune 500 executives, as one of the two most effective speakers in the U.S. The other was elected President of the United States that year.

*He is listed as a “Who’s Who” of Human Potential Superstars and the “Best of the Best” by the world famous Nightingale-Conant. They featured his best selling audio-tape series on the cover of their catalog. This audio program was featured in SUCCESS magazine … twice.

**Robert Kriegel has been called one of this country’s leading authorities in the field of change and human performance by U.S. News & World Report. His book, Sacred Cows Make The Best Burgers, made Business Week’s bestseller list. Dr. Kriegel’s latest book about innovation and “out of the box” thinking is How to Succeed in Business Without Working so Damn Hard.

**An All-American athlete and pioneer in the field of sports psychology, Robert Kriegel who has coached both Olympic and pro athletes, was a co-founder of one of the first institutes of sports psychology in the country. The New York Times said his work “spurred a revolution in performance practices.”

**Robert Kriegel has taught at Stanford University’s Executive Management Program and is a former advertising executive for Young and Rubicam in New York, where he managed major accounts such as Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, and Travelers Insurance.

***Former President of one of California’s largest real estate companies, holding 28 offices, and employing 540 sales associates.

Roger is a member of the National Speakers Association and the holder of two prestigious designations from that association, including: CPAE (Council of Peers Award of Excellence),and CSP (Certified Speaking Professional). Dawson was inducted into the Speaker Hall of Fame in 1991.

A professional speaker, Roger Dawson has lectured throughout North America, Australia, Europe, Taiwan, China and New Zealand. He is in demand as an expert by such companies as: Xerox, IBM, 3M National, General Foods, Century 21, Eureka Vacuum Cleaners, Merrill Lynch, Hewlett-Packard, and Abbott Pharmaceutical.

His best-selling audiocassette program, The Secrets of Power Negotiating, is considered “the best audiocassette program on negotiating,” the definitive classic on an extremely difficult and intimidating subject.

****Orvel was Voted one of the world’s TOP 5 SALES SPEAKERS 2010 and 2011

Recently featured as one of “The 10 Most Important Business Books of the Decade” by Selling Magazine.

****A well-established business guru, he’s a co-author of the legendary Guerrilla Marketing series, with more than 14 million books sold worldwide, including Guerrilla Selling, Guerrilla Trade Show Selling, Guerrilla Tele-Selling, Guerrilla Negotiating and Guerrilla Retailing. His work has been quoted in INC., The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and dozens of trade journals in a dozen languages.

*****Herschell is recognised and praised internationally as a leading authority on direct marketing. He is the world’s most respected sales copywriters and renowned filmmaker.

*****Lewis received a Master’s degree in Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. A few years later, he became a professor of English literature at Mississippi State College.

Member of the Direct Marketing Association Hall of Fame.

Published over 20 books during his long business career in advertising, including “The Businessman’s Guide to Advertising and Sales Promotion”

In 2006, Lewis was inducted into the Polly Staffle Hall of Fame.

******Dale is also the author of 16 best-selling books, which have collectively sold over 250,000 copies. ‘Australia’s Most Prolific Author’.

Dale has been interviewed on Sunrise, Today Show, Mornings with Kerri-Anne, Cheez TV, Ten News, ABC Radio, Radio 2UE as well as being featured in over one hundred newspapers and magazines, including Wealth Creator, My Business Magazine, AFR Boss and Virgin’s In-flight magazine.