What is Closing? I recall the day effortlessly. Id been busy selling mortgages to customers of an estate agency in the 1980s 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 wasnt looking forward to the meeting. You see up until that moment, selling mortgages in the estate agency was really easy. Im certainly not bragging hereI 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. Thats it. Fullstop. Closing is the one skill that every sales person, what ever youre selling, just has to do. But thats the problem, as I see it. Closing the sale has become synonymous with slick salesey 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 orderand it all gets a little too much for the average sales person. So Id like to give you my take on closing the sale. A method which youll not notice that youre actually closing the sale according to the tapes and sales books out there. A method in which the customer doesnt know theyre being closed and no fancy technique is being used. Its clean, tidy, easy to do and incredibly customer focussed. And that is what rapport selling is all about. Its like eating soup Eating Soup For lunch my wife and I had her home made turkey soup. Yes, youre right, Christmas wasnt long ago and the carcass has been boiling on the stove all day. My wifes turkey soup is famous because it feeds my whole family for days and is absolutely delicious. Eating the soup is like closing sales. Theres no way Id ever dive into the soup, take an enormous spoonful and gulp it down. Id 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 wouldnt go charging in would you? Would you like to sign the paperwork now, Mrs Brown you say five minutes into the sale. Youd end up with a handbag around your chops! No, youd 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 dont ever ask for the salethey dont like to be rejected. If you test the soup first to see how hot it is, youll not burn your tongue. Likewise if you test the customer first, youll not spoil the deal. So how do you do this? Its 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 didnt 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 dont 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 customereventually someone is going to say yes. But I dont like to teach selling that wayI like to enjoy my job and the rapport we build with customers. Its all about asking questions Its 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 youll 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 youd like to know about? No, everythings 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 wasnt my wife then! Claire I said getting terribly tongue tied, hypothetically speaking, if I was to take you out one evening, would you have any objections? She accused me of being a lawyer at that moment and I nearly blew it completely. 15 years later we now laugh about my ridiculous trial close. Although not very elegant, it worked. It made her laugh and she said she would say yes. So I did and here I am today happily married and with three children too. The same process needs to be followed in sales. Youve tested the water and now need to be sure the customer is ready to say yes. As before you can do this verbally and non verbally. Questions are needed here which serve as trial closes. A few questions need asking such as: Is this what you had in mind
Does this fit your budget?
If I can arrange that for you, would you be interested?
Are you OK with the whole package? In many cases your questions will throw up nos or Im not sure or Ill let you know. Dealing with customer concerns deserves more time spent which Ill give you later. But the best learning point here is that concerns or issues that are thrown out will tell you how close you are to the final close. If you have too many concerns from your customer, theyre not ready to buy so youll want to go back to more benefits or re-analysing their real needs. Get yourself into reverse gear Non verbal trial closing is great fun. My favourite is to place the contract or application form or whatever needs signing in the middle of the table for them to take. A sure sign they want to go ahead. The other non verbal trial close is silence but you need to combine this with a question. For example: If we got this going for you, would you be interested in going ahead right now? Next you go siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilent. Closing Questions When Ive tested the temperature of my wifes soup, taken a sip, I then have no hesitation in taking a really big spoonful and popping this straight into my mouth. Mmmthis tastes really good. I just know its going to be delicious. In the same way when selling, if youve tested the customer for a buying signal, trialled some questions with them, then you just know theyre going to say yes. You just expect or assume theyll buy. So phrase your closing questions assuming theyll say yes. Lets go ahead then?
Shall we fill in the forms straightway then?
Shall we get the ball rolling then?
Would you like me to fill in the application form for you now?
How would you like to pay? Remember to go silent just after youve asked the final close question. Look at them, smile and wait. Easier said than done I know. Silence can be very loud in these situations but you need to keep quiet. Some salespeople like to have several closing phrases or questions available to them and over the years weve given some strange names to these. The Duke of Wellington Close, the Half Nelson Close, the Alternative Close, the Balance Sheet Close. Maybe another day we can talk about these if youre interested. I remember seeing a video many years ago. I think it was on the course that my fierce Sale Director sent me on. The video was ever so old, even then. Everyone had massive shirt collars, mullet haircuts, flowery shirts and horrendous flairs in the trousers. I recall we went through 15 closing techniques on that video. And we had to learn them all by heart. Really you dont need these. Remember to follow the three stage process which is very customer friendly and fits the rapport selling model: Test
Trial
Close by asking to go ahead and you wont go far wrong. Good luck in your closing. |
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