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Why Salespeople Have Trouble Closing

Written by: Dave Kurlan

Article Overview: I've been speaking about what makes salespeople tick for about 15 years. From the beginning I've been telling audiences that there is a 100% correlation between how salespeople make a major purchase and the behavior (stalls, put-offs, excuses, sob stories) they will tolerate from their prospects.

Why Salespeople Have Trouble Closing

I've been speaking about what makes salespeople tick for about 15 years. From the beginning I've been telling audiences that there is a 100% correlation between how salespeople make a major purchase and the behavior (stalls, put-offs, excuses, sob stories) they will tolerate from their prospects. I call this weakness, Non-Supportive Buy Cycle and it consists of several components; vulnerable to think it overs; vulnerable to price shoppers, vulnerable to comparison shoppers, and vulnerable to prospects who think it's expensive.

Today, while reviewing a sales force evaluation with a client, he wanted me to know, up front, how HE rated his sales force. He gave one guy an A, a lady a B, another lady a B-, a second guy a C+ and said everyone else was a C. When we got to the Non Supportive Buy Cycle about an hour later, he got all excited because he saw the correlation between how HE rated his salespeople and how much of the Buy Cycle weakness those people did or didn't have. While Buy Cycle will affect salespeople primarily at closing time, another huge weakness, Need for Approval, will haunt salespeople who have it all the way through the selling process.

When you evaluate your sales force you can learn about all of the various weaknesses that prevent your salespeople from executing.

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Article Tags: audiences, buy cycle, closing time, comparison shoppers, correlation, force evaluation, prospects, salespeople



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