3 Fundamental Closing Questions You Need to Nail Every Time
Are you seeking the newest, latest and greatest killer closing questions that will skyrocket your commissions? Craving some secret closing magic you’ve never heard until now?
Well, sorry to disappoint, but you are not going to find it here from me today my friends.
Want to stop reading this now? I challenge you not to. I challenge you to evaluate your sales game on the fundamental level.
As a sales coach and trainer, it is my job to help professionals consistently stay on top of the changing market. While that sometimes means supplying you with cutting edge sales practices, salespeople often get caught up in attempting to achieve mastery when they don’t know, understand or perform the fundamentals.
Attempting mastery without application of fundamentals = Disaster!
Want to deliver stronger and more effective closing questions? Start with the fundamentals!
1. The “Do You Like Me” Close
You are closing before you ever open your mouth to speak to your prospect. Know what you are closing on? Yourself!
It’s the “Do You Like Me” close and it happens within the first seven seconds. A customer enters your presence and within seven seconds they make a decision – “Do I like this salesperson?”
If they do, well then, congratulations! They will probably keep liking you because that it is easier for them than having to keep revisiting their initial decision.
But if they don’t find you immediately likeable, then you are probably dead in the water because getting them turned around is extremely difficult.
To nail the “Do You Like Me” close, consider your grooming and appearance, your attire, your environment and your initial energy and non-verbals. Your buyers subconsciously and quickly take in all these factors when making this first critical decision – so do yourself a favor and give yourself a brutally honest self assessment on how well you are executing this critical close.
2. The “Minor Agreements” Close
An effective close is not (or should not be) one moment in time. Effective closing questions do not roll out like a freight train at the end of the sales presentation. Effective closing questions do not make the buyer feel completely overwhelmed by one final, huge decision.
Help the buyer make minor agreements and small decisions along the way to relieve the cognitive strain that is often associated with the final closing question. By applying the Law of Continuity, which says “when buyers start to say yes, they continue to say yes”, you are providing your buyers a sense of cognitive ease. And cognitive ease creates a sense of safety for buyers.
When buyers feel safe they say, “Yes!”.
3. The “Come Correct” Close
Closing correctly means that we must embrace a proper paradigm about what closing questions actually are and what they are not. Proper paradigm: closing is something we do FOR the buyer, not TO the buyer. (Make this your new mantra).
Closing questions should never be manipulative or self-serving. And closing questions should never feel like entrapment.
Now, please don’t misunderstand me when I say closing questions must not be self-serving. I do not mean that closing questions should not be clear and direct.
There is nothing wrong with asking clear and direct closing questions. In fact, clear and direct helps provide clarity both for you and the buyer on where you are in the decision-making process.
So there you have it, three fundamentals of effective closing questions: close early, close often and close correctly.
How are you doing in each of these areas? Where can you improve? If you focus on strengthening your fundamentals, I guarantee you will increase your sales.
