Rule # 5 – No Pressure
When I started sales, I thought learning to sell was like learning to change the oil in your car. There was a step-by-step process that every successful sales person followed and all you had to do was learn and then follow that.
While there is some truth to that, the problem was that many of the steps I was taught and that are still being taught to this day are rubbish! And just because they’re rubbish, doesn’t mean they don’t work on occasion. They do, but they soil your soul in the process. Do that long enough and you won’t recognize yourself!
“He who speaks first loses”
You’ve probably heard that said, but my question is… Why does anyone have to lose? Selling is not a zero sum game where the salesman wins and the prospect loses (or the other way around). Who thought that was a good idea?
Selling is a process you walk through with a prospect to discover their true needs, wants and desires, and then help satisfy them. When this happens, you both win! I do realize that you can talk your way past a sale, but you should never enter a sales conversation with the idea that someone is going to lose, and it better not be you.
“21 Ways to Close a Sale”
Back in the 70’s, when I was just a pup in copier sales, I had to learn 21 different closes by J. Douglas Edwards. Things like the Ben Franklin close, the Alternative Choice Close, the Order Blank Close, etc. In fact, there is one very well known guru today that has even more closes than that! I’m here to tell you that is just ridiculous.
You don’t need 21 ways to close a sale. You need one good way to find the needs (that’s knowledge), win the heart with what Solomon calls “understanding” and satisfy the mind with what Solomon called “wisdom”.
When you learn how to find knowledge, get understanding and obtain and apply wisdom, you will never again use force or pressure in a vain attempt to “close a sale”. In fact, many times you will have prospects closing you for the sale!
Anyone trying to teach you umpteen different closes has it all wrong in my opinion. Ask any man who has ever proposed to his girlfriend, if they got a “YES” on the first attempt. I think you’ll find 99.99% of the time, they did!… Unless he told the girl that if she made up her mind before 5:00, he’d throw in some special cookware and take her to Hawaii!
Why is the closing percentage so much higher when it comes to a commitment the size of marriage, compared to getting a YES when asking for the order in business?
The short answer is that the man making a marriage proposal, is pretty sure she will answer YES before he pops the question. He is confident he’ll get a positive reply because of the rapport, the trust, the common vision and goals that have been discussed (see previous blogs for more on those) and agreed upon in advance. The proposal is more of a formality, concretizing what has already been understood.
Closing a sale is more like that. And the way you actually close a sale is to lead your prospect by way of questions to your amazing solution and then when you see that they see it, you simply say something like… “What would you like to do next?”
That leaves the power in the hands of the buyer and if you have done a good job of winning the heart, building trust, earning respect and meeting needs, you will almost always get a positive response.
I realize it’s almost Christmas day so I wanted to take a moment to wish you the very best Christmas yet and a tremendously blessed 2024, regardless of what the world throws at us! If you’d like to take advantage of my once a year Christmas specials and save up to 83% on courses that can help you truly rocket your sales in 2024, they will remain up over Christmas because I don’t intend to work tomorrow to take them down. If you just want to look at the Selling Among Wolves program, you can do that here.
There’s a lot coming down the pike in 2024… a lot of uncharted territory. It will be my high honor to walk down that road with you and help you excel beyond what you ever thought possible.
God bless you my friend! And God speed your success!