|
Three Common
Closing Mistakes
Successful
entrepreneurs often come by selling naturally. But closing a
tough sale requires more than a winning personality. As any
sales veteran will tell you, closing can be tricky, and there
are many places where a false move can delay or derail a sale.
You can boost your odds of completing the deal simply by
avoiding these three classic closing mistakes:
1. Not
asking for the business. This is by far the most common
mistake in sales. You would think it would be obvious: Either
you ask for the business or you don't. But asking for business
is more of an art than a science. Good, clear questions that
lead to successful closes are often confused with requests for
opinion and ambiguous queries that do little more than lead to
other questions. Rely on these classic closing techniques to
help cut to the chase:
-
Summarize
all the things the prospect said they want from a product or
service. Use the notes you've collected throughout the
sales process to show how buying from you satisfies these
needs.
-
Point out
the extra benefits your prospect will get by purchasing the
product or service from your company -- not just any
company.
-
Paint a
positive emotional picture of how the prospect will feel
when they use your product or service.
-
Show that
the product is within the prospect's budget. If the price
is a bit lower than expected, get them excited about it.
2. Not
paying attention to the prospect's signals. Selling is more
about listening than it is about talking. Your prospect may be
ready to buy and you could be too busy talking to notice. After
you've asked closing questions, stop talking. Let the prospect
answer. It's tempting to keep selling when you should be
listening, but you'll do a lot better if you learn to stop when
you've said enough.
3. Getting
jaded. Attitude is everything in sales. Don't let past
experience negatively affect your closing techniques. And don't
let your successes cloud the circumstances of the current
situation. Getting too caught up in the success or failure of
each interaction can also be a problem. The best salespeople
treat each new prospect as if they were the first and most
exciting customer in town.
|
