Surefire Sales Closing Techniques and Your CQ
While IQ tests are designed to assess intelligence, and EQ tests measure one’s ability to identify, evaluate and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and groups, I believe that salespeople have a CQ or Closing Quotient measurement. When I talk about a salesperson’s CQ, I refer to competencies and skills that drive performance and ultimately make deals happen.
The CQ is a measurement, not just in success, as it pertains to the raw numbers of your weekly sales report but to your ability to drive a deal from beginning to end. Just like following driving directions on the road, driving a sale happens in steps. Focus on how well you perform each step to determine your CQ.
To score a high CQ, there must be a union of these four competencies:
Connect x Understand x Advance x Serve = CQ
Connect – People who rate high in connection can build trust with customers and make them feel at ease. They pay special attention to the relationship between themselves and the prospect. We establish relationships with people very quickly, be they good or bad. If you score high in this competency, you realize that building rapport and becoming liked by your prospect is essential to drive the sale forward.
Understand – You need to identify the customer’s current dissatisfaction and their ultimate goal of improving their life. Discover what it is about their current situation that needs to change. This can only happen when a good relationship has been established because it demands trust. The customer must trust you enough to share their story and then trust that you have an accurate and empathetic understanding of what that story is. If they don’t think you understand, they won’t believe you can help them, and the sale stalls.
Advance – This third skill is demonstrating the home, overcoming objections, and asking for a sale. This includes using vision agreements in the beginning, getting small “yesses” through the demonstration, and finally asking for the sale at the end of the presentation on the first visit. Salespeople who score high in Advance adeptly take a customer through that series of small agreements and arrive at an inevitable conclusion where it is entirely natural to ask the final closing question.
Serve – Depending on the customer’s answer to the final close question, Serve manifests itself in one of two ways:
- If the customer buys the home, then Serve becomes about providing them with the appropriate level of service throughout their closing process and even after they close, affirming their purchase decision and ultimately asking for a referral.
- If the customer has not made a purchase decision, Serve becomes about implementing a strategic follow-up plan, inviting them back, and asking for the sale again.
In either case, to score high in Serve, a salesperson must have a strategic, intentional action plan for every customer. It is tempting for salespeople to cut that process short, but there is much more value when you continue your relationship with the buyer.
Salespeople with a high CQ are fully engaged in every aspect of the sale. They realize that closing is not just a moment in time at the end of a presentation but a culmination of all of the processes leading up to the final question. Remember the formula above.
I challenge you to determine which ability needs to be developed in your presentation to bring your CQ up as high as it can go!
