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How to Close the Deal Your Salespeople Can't Close

Guest post by: Dave Kurlan

Article Overview: Sometimes, when your salespeople are trying to close a sale, the deal stalls, gets put-off, or simply doesn't close. This is followed by, well, follow up, leading to more put-offs. There are many reasons why this happens but for the purpose of this article, let's simply assume that the prospect has every reason to buy and the salesperson did not do anything glaringly wrong along the way. Simply a closable opportunity that hasn't closed yet. In situations like this, there are usually two things going on:

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How to Close the Deal Your Salespeople Can't Close



stop signSometimes, when your salespeople are trying to close a sale, the deal stalls, gets put-off, or simply doesn't close. This is followed by, well, follow up, leading to more put-offs. There are many reasons why this happens but for the purpose of this article, let's simply assume that the prospect has every reason to buy and the salesperson did not do anything glaringly wrong along the way. Simply a closable opportunity that hasn't closed yet. In situations like this, there are usually two things going on:

  1. The prospect has some unresolved fear, discomfort or risk;
  2. The salesperson is trying too hard to close.
The fascinating thing about these two scenarios is that the harder the salesperson attempts to close, the more fear, discomfort and risk it creates for the prospect. Their resistance gets stronger.

The solution? Stop trying so hard!

The strategy? Lower the resistance.

The tactic? Acknowledge their fear, let them know you understand it, and lower their resistance. Get them to admit to it and then you can ask them why they are afraid, and what you can do to resolve it.

This new information is not an objection or even a reason. It is simply a new problem for you to solve and your solution should be revised to address this problem. If you can do that, you'll close the sale.

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Home > Sales > Dave Kurlan > How to Close the Deal Your Salespeople Cant Close >
Article Tags: fear, hasn, images, li li, objection, resistance, risk, salespeople, salesperson, scenarios, tactic

About the Author: Dave Kurlan
RSS for Dave's articles - Visit Dave's website

Dave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development.  He is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling (Dan Seidman), Stepping Stones (Deepak Chopra and Brian Tracey) and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2 (David Riklan).

Click here to visit Dave's website
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