“When people think of closing, they think of it in terms of closing a specific deal. This isn’t the case for salespeople who work with clients that have repetitive business.
For most salespeople, closing a deal is not one act and is certainly not as finite as, let’s say, closing a deal on a house; there’s closing the call, closing the commitment to the opportunity to take on a project, closing the follow-up to expand business, and so on and so forth.
Fear of rejection— that’s why a salesperson doesn’t close. A salesperson might know that they’re not getting business from a client, but they’d much rather have the situation in flux than actually hearing the word no because then the salesperson has nothing to work with. This also gives the salesperson something to report to their boss, which makes them feel better about the situation; it makes them feel as if they still have leeway to accomplish something. But, doing this will get a salesperson nowhere.
What’s important is that the salesperson either closes or does not close the deal. This way, if the answer is yes then they will get the business, and if the answer is no, then they can figure out the reason why, try again, or move on immediately to someone else who actually wants to work with them.
Here are three rules to follow when closing a deal:
- Ask specifically for what you want and not what you think the client will give you.
- Come to terms with the fact that every other answer besides yes is no.
- If the answer is no, combat their objection, ask questions, and move on.”
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