When I first started in sales nearly 20 years ago, I bought a book by Tom Hopkins. I'm a little older now so forgive me if my memory isn't quite up to speed, I recall it was called "The Art of Closing" or the "The Art of Closing Sales". I read it with all the eagerness of youth and the naivity that went with it.
I discovered the arcane Porcupine Close, Sharp Angle Close, Ben Franklin Close and at least 120 others. I was on top of the world. I was equipped and had become a trained killer. Watch out world!
I was in my first "proper" job out of university selling phone based advertising (this was the precursor to Talking Pages) for a small start up called Key Connect (0800 101102 was their number - they were right the very expensive number was memorable). Sadly it was doomed to failure with the management team, the sales team and especially me. I bought the training guff I received (2 days of learning closes and the presentation by rote), I had my Tommy Hopkins closing skills honed to near perfection and I was naturally talented on the phone so I could get in front of (some) decision makers.
I remember pitching this grumpy man with a beard, I think his name was Jim Somethingorother. ANyway he had a reputation for being a tough nut. Was I phased? Not one bit, I had a great service to sell, I BELIEVED, and I knew how to close. The pitch had gone well, I did a few trial closes ("If I could show you a way......", "So what I'm hearing you ask me is.....", "Well Jim, if I could do that you'd sign up today?" and it was time to move in for the kill.
I could see his defences cracking and so I whipped out a blank sheet of A4 paper, drew a T-bar across and down it. I wrote "Pros" on the left and "Cons" on the right above the line, and asked him to tell me all the things he liked about the concept. He started to speak and then smiled, which turned to a frown and stopped. The pregnant pause made me think he was about to give in, when he hit me. He hit me with "Marcus, are you doing the Ben Franklin close on me?"
I was. I blushed. Deep red. And I stammered "Y...y...y...you know it? Er? Um? I find it very useful whenever I'm making important decisions. Don't you?"
To which he replied, "No, get out of my office. This stuff is so old Noah used it." It may have been old hat to him, but to me it was the latest thing in closing. I'd only bought the book a week before.
A few lessons learned in this and subsequent calls with a bruised ego......
1. Buyers have been hit with almost every close known to man, so they've developed a system to beat your system 2. Buyers hate to be sold, they prefer to buy 3. Whoever has the stronger system wins 4. The close needs to happen at the beginning of the sales process not at the end 5. Positive "buying signals" from a positive prospect are generally worthless since they are the hardest prospects to get to buy anything 6. Pitting my green gills against savvy buyers, no clever sales trickery would get them to buy 7. Most sales techniques are so old they are obvious and seen from a mile away 8. Enthusiasm and blind faith in you and your product is no match for a powerful, repeatable system that works 9. Tommy Hopkins published the book in 1980 based on his success as a real estate salesman in the 1970s. Lesson: Don't use old material that the prospects are familiar with and know better than you!
It took me 16 years to realise this. Please don't take as long as I did. I costs you money and time, weekends and self-respect. These lessons can be learned quickly, but for me, doing something about it was the problem. Since then I've learned how to close without closing, turn negative prospects into major, profitable buyers and how to use the power of negative selling to disarm and get prospects to close themselves.
The ABC of closing is AVOID BLATANT CLOSING. I have a client who produced a 140 page booklet on closes and how to handle stalls and objections. The section I teach on that is about 5 lines lines long and my close rate is in the 90%+ range. Find or develop your own system that avoids tired closes and puts the buyer in a position where they feel they're being sold, let them discover they want your service and make them buy.
My guess is few of you can relate to this story because you aren't as slow or dense as me. But for those of you who try so hard (and I know you're out there), ease up, back off and retreat a little when you smell the blood of a sale. Learn how to let the prospect close themselves.
Happy selling!
(C)Copyright Sandler Sales Inc 2006 Regards Marcus Cauchi Managing Director S.A.L.T. (Europe) Ltd Sandler Sales Institute, 180◦ From Traditional Sales Training©
Sandler Sales Institute® - Licensed Franchisee Guerrilla Marketing® - Licensed Master Practitioners Mob +44 (0) 7876 616 983 Tel 0845 458 1237 London1.Sandler.com
Sales Training London: Sales Training ABC of Closing - To learn more about this author, visit Marcus Cauchi's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 |
Related Articles |
|
 What Makes A Great Sales Training Book?
|
| |
Sales training books of moderate quality are pretty easy to locate. Those which are considered of outstanding quality are a bit more difficult to get your hands on, and truly great sales training books are, as they ...
|
|
Sales Training Materials that Work!
|
| |
Sales training materials abound. But which materials, among so many, do you select when preparing to train yourself or your sales force on the often complex and sometimes confusing skills of selling? And what criter...
|
|
Sales Training - short term or long term success?
|
| |
Sales Training comes in two winning versions: Short-term success and long-term success.
|
|
Sales Training London: A Blatant Sales Pitch
|
| |
Traditional sales teaches you to qualify, present your features and benefits, trial close, close often and finish off with a professional proposal.
This article disputes the very core of traditional selling and m...
|
|
TRADITIONAL SALES TRAINING LEADS TO DECLINE IN SALES
|
| |
Industrial psychologist and sales researcher Neil Rackham reports in a study of over 1000 sales calls that sales results deteriorated after traditional sales training programs were implemented.
|
|
|
Marcus Cauchi
(Visit Marcus's Website)
Marcus Cauchi is London's first licensed
Sandler sales trainer. 19 years in direct
sales, he's sold physical products,
services and intangibles with varied
success. Over 16 years he left behind over
£56 million in deals he could have won,
but did because he didn't know any
better. He thought you had to qualify for
needs, present the benefits of your
solution, trial close, follow up with a
proposal or further information and the
close. He learned the hard way that when
you "pitch" a prospect lies to protect
himself. When you present and answer his
questions, he'll steal your ideas. When
you close, he'll mislead you or defer to
a higher authority (boss, wife, CFO) and
then when he's got you to document in
writing (proposals) and give away your
confidential pricing, he'll shop that
around your competitors to get the best
deal. When you follow up for a decision,
he'll give you unlimited access to his
voicemail and hide. Marcus teaches
counter intuitive selling. Average clients
increase revenues by 100-1100% in a year.
He's probably not for you though as it's
difficult and expensive.
|
|
 |
|
|
Marcus Cauchi's
Complete
List Of
Sales
Articles
|
|
|
If you enjoyed this article, get Marcus Cauchi's Complete List of Sales Articles For FREE!
|
| |
|
|
|
![[Get Copyright Permissions]](http://license.icopyright.net/images/icopy-w.gif){kind=small}
