Are You Closing the Sale or Just Using Presentation Enders?

As I am traveling the country, listening to sales presentations or just being a consumer myself, I love to study how people ask for the sale. It doesn’t matter if it’s my waiter closing me on ordering a dessert or if it’s the guy at the car wash upselling me to the more expensive wash. I love the art of closing.

Here’s my challenge. More often than not, I don’t hear actual closes. Instead, I hear what I call “presentation enders.” Let me give you a few examples:

• “So…do you have any more questions?”
• “Can I get you any more information?”
• “What do you think?”
• “Well…I will call you sometime this week to see how your search is going.”
• “Here’s my card. Please let me know if I can help.”
• “Let me know.”

Not one of these examples is an actual close. A true close elicits action to purchase. In addition, a true close risks rejection. So we have to ask, why don’t people close? In my experience is has to do with mindset.

At our Closing 2.0 Academy we teach that in order to close effectively you have to adopt a specific mindset that says:

​Closing is not something you do to your customer.

It is something you do for your customer.

In the past, sales training has taught closing as something you do to a customer. I couldn’t disagree more.

Let’s look at it this way. Imagine you go in to the doctor’s office because you have been dealing with a nasty, mucous-laden cough that you just can’t shake. After waiting in the doctors’ office for 45 minutes past your scheduled appointment time (#annoying), the doctor comes and this is how the conversation goes.

Doctor: “What seems to be the issue?”

You: “Well, I have had this nasty cough for three weeks and it won’t seem to go away.”

Doctor: “Ok. Let me take a look.”

Doctor examines your throat, listens to your heartbeat, etc.

Doctor: “Alright. Well it looks bad. You have some irritation in your throat and possibly some liquid in your lungs. That being said, there’s a brochure in the lobby, you can go read about it. Thanks for coming in.”

OK. Let me ask you, what would you think if this was your doctor? Wouldn’t you think, “Hey! What the heck? I came here for a solution to my problem!” Of course that’s what you would think. I would too.

So here’s the deal. Every customer that you are interacting with has a goal. Their goal is to improve their life. That implies that there is something wrong in their life now that your product or service can help with. If you don’t ask for the sale, you are actually sending them home to stay in their pain.

If you want to learn how to master the proper closing mindset, then you need to attend our next Closing 2.0 Academy.

Learn how to sell the way your buyer actually wants to buy. Become an ally for your buyer instead of an adversary. Join the Closing 2.0 Academy and learn how to make your clients see you as their hero, not the enemy!