June 01 , 2008

Dr. Will the Dentist ;

Closing the sale the ServiceTrac way!

One of the sales secrets that is near and dear to my heart is asking for the close.

Every time I do a sales training folks always come up to me and want that to be the focus of the entire sales training. Good sales trainers and good sales people all know that the close is not the end of the sales training but really the beginning. But to make sure that your in position to ask for the close you need to do a lot of other things right...like build a good relationship, make sure that the content that your trying to sell matches the values of the customer, do a nice presentation, and make sure that you've done everything you can to put that customer in a position to be willing to purchase whatever you are going to ask them to do or move forward.

But I want to focus on the close for just a minute because most sales people are just flat out scared of asking for a close. They just don't understand it. I did a test a while back and listened to many video and audio mystery shops. and you wouldn't believe it. Out of twenty mystery shops only one sales person actually asked the customer to move forward and close or give them a check.

I've asked these sales people a lot of times, "Why don't you ask for a close?" And I always get the same answer. "I'm not sure. I just felt like they weren't ready to go forward." We'll I want to give you a little hint about asking for a close. Those sales people that don't ask for a close, the customers they interact with, they don't think that they're giving them a nice, low pressure sales presentation, where they like them and are willing to go back later. They think those sales people are lame. They think they are uneducated. They think they don't care. They think they're untalented. They don't think they even have the skill to be a sales person. Customers do not respect sales people who don't have the ability, the desire, or the confidence to ask them to move forward. Customers need to be asked to move forward.

They need to have their objections and their fears uncovered so they can move forward and make decisions and do the things they need to do.

To illustrate this point I'd like to talk about a new degree that I just received. In order to do this I have created a podcast witch can be heard by clciking the link below. In the podcast I tell a story I call Dr. Will the Dentist where I use a small story to teach the skills and importance of closing the sale.I am confident that with a little training and the ValuePath Sales Techniques we offer here at ServiceTrac I am confident all of your communities can be more succesfull at closing the sale. I hope you all enjoy and good luck!

Best Regards,

William Nowell