By Leon Frank

You’re sitting at your desk when the phone rings. It’s a prospect call! With the sales siren blaring, you leap into action. Establish a time for your meeting with them…tailor the Power Point to the prospect…load the company brochures…pack product samples…rehearse your lines…spiff into your power suit. You’re ready to win the customer on the sales battlefield.

But as you charge out of the parking lot and gun your way to the prospect meeting, a recurring question keeps tickling at the edge of your mind. When should you start closing?

Most salespeople, however proficient they are at making presentations, are dismally weak when it comes to saying, “Sign here!” The typical salesperson misses the prospect’s blatant buy signals because he or she is too busy rattling on about product features, and then softens the close with warm fuzzies to avoid putting them on the spot.

Too often, salespeople never close at all, hoping their sales presentations are so convincing the prospects will sign up on their own.

Why we have trouble closing

Want to know why you have trouble closing? Think back to your childhood training. Demanding “Can I have a cookie?” as you stormed into Aunt Bertha’s living room assured a reprimand on the way home. Politeness was hammered into us from the time we could talk, and selling goes directly uphill against those youthful lessons. It’s just not considered gracious manners to look someone directly in the eye and say, “When shall we deliver?”

An added obstacle for some sales professionals is that they consider it beneath them to ask for the sale. After all, no one goes to business school for three years so they can reduce themselves to begging for the client’s business, right?

Wrong. Welcome to the real world of business. You’re now in an environment where NOT asking for the cookie will cost you big-time. If your sales presentation is outstanding but your competitor asks for the order, guess who gets the business? It doesn’t matter if you are a law firm or an office supply company. Selling is the same for everyone.

When to start closing

So — you’re on the way to the meeting with the prospect. When do you start closing? The instant you arrive. As soon as you get out of the car and your feet hit the pavement in their parking lot. Keep these points in mind:

• Image — What does their facility look like? Match your presentation to the image they project. If they are a first-rate operation, you can start diverting price objections right away by reminding them that they aren’t a company that rides in steerage.

• Accoutrements — What do they have hanging on their walls? Are they into sports, art, ballet? Use these observations to appeal to their emotions: “A company with your rich culture will be sure to appreciate the quality of our
products.”

• Goals — Do your products meet their goals? You can’t demonstrate that they do if you have no idea what their goals are. Before you start babbling about your three-year warranty, ask what’s important to them? Where they are going? Then show them ways your products will help them get there. “Our new technology will be a significant contribution to helping increase your sales by one-third next year.”

• Decision makers — Don’t waste your time trying to close someone who can’t even decide to buy from you. Find out who the decision maker is before the presentation and try to make sure he or she is there as well. If the decision maker can’t be there, try to schedule a follow-up meeting where you can close with this person directly.

• What’s next? — Make the next steps to doing business with you crystal clear. Spell out what to do next and provide them with everything they need to sign aboard. If actually signing a contract is the next step, give it to them and hand them the pen.

• Ask for the order — There are many professional, non-insulting ways to ask for the order. Learn them, and rehearse them in the privacy of your own office so you don’t fumble your way through them in front of the prospect. Use direct questions. Did we meet your goals? Does our product match your corporate image? Is this price what you had in mind? What do we need to do to go forward? Are you ready to sign an order today?

Don’t waste your time

Closing is the most vital element of your whole sales presentation. Without it, you’ve wasted all the time preparing the proposal, making the presentation and doing follow-up. Start closing the second you meet the prospect and continue until they sign — even if it means looking them in the eye and asking for the order.

Leon Frank is president of Arkota Marketing Communications, a company that specializes in providing sales training and marketing programs. You can reach Leon at (410) 518-9878, or visit Arkota’s Web site at www.arkota.com.

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