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Hello fellow sales entrepreneurs.
Welcome to 2004. I remind you that our newsletters are a bit
lengthy. I suggest you print it and review it when you have
some quiet time. Enjoy.
2004 is upon us and its arrival offers another opportunity to
author a great year. Use your positive experiences and worthy
accomplishments of 2003 as a springboard for even greater
success in 2004. Success is yours for the taking. “Just did
it”.
To help you jumpstart your 2004 journey to success my theme for
January’s newsletter is: “Ask, and Thou Shall Receive.”
It is a fundamental truism from biblical times. The sad truth is
countless opportunities are lost because 60% of the time we fail to ask for the sale. We don’t close. The majority of salespeople cringe at the very thought of closing and avoid putting themselves in a turndown-risk situation. That’s why average close ratios hover around 20%.The flip side would mean that your customers have an 80% close ratio. Ouch. If you’re not closing, you’re working for the competition.
What an admirable 2004 objective, double your current close
ratio. Yes, it’s doable. I suggest you focus on shifting a 20%
ratio to 40%. (Clarification; close ratio means closing
qualified prospects who have a need for your stuff supported
with a budget with the intent to purchase. It also relates to
closing new business within existing accounts. It does not mean
servicing repeat business as an order taker.)
The solution is not magical or mystical, it’s straightforward.
I direct you back to the Spectrum 10 Step Sequential Model of
Professional Selling. It begins with Step One: your attitude,
your outlook towards closing. See success prior to the call,
refocus on previous successes and know you can do it.
Closing is not an isolated event but begins within the first
8-10 seconds of the call. With terrifying speed customers begin to like you or dislike you. Hence, prepare yourself mentally, use
probes to create rapport and credibility, reveal and understand
their expectations, create desire, present an appealing
solution, then CLOSE. Ask for what you want.
The best way to ask is to ask! It’s an essential ingredient of
a 40% close ratio. Simply ask “May I have your business?” It’s
clean, honest and direct. I use it 80% of the time. An
alternative close that I occasionally use is “What’s our next
step?”.
Forget about memorizing 150 clever closes. It confuses you and
the customer. What is often passed off as a close is this
gem, “Do you have any questions? Okay then, how about I give
you a call next week to touch base and answer any questions. Is
that ok?” Sound familiar? All you need is one or two closes that you are comfortable using.
Now for the fun part. When you do ask, sit back and savor the
look of dismay on your customer’s face. They are flabbergast.
Rarely are they asked. Hence, I suggest you will get a yes more
frequently than you expect. It’s awesome. It does work!
If the customer says “no” it may just mean “know” -I need to
know more before I commit to you. I then flush out any
outstanding issues or objections by asking “What’s the barrier
to us moving forward?” I may even ask “What’s your alternative?”
If it is a valid “no” then I consider that as validation. I no
longer waste the customer’s time or mine and I move on to
another opportunity.
“Ask and thou shall receive” is truer than you think. You may
not receive your desired outcome but receiving validation of a
yes or a no is a good thing. Welcome it. With only 1,760
selling hours in 2004, you can ill afford to squander valuable selling hours on dead end accounts.
Timing is also important. Ask your close only after you have
bridged two features to accepted benefits. Remember, customers
buy benefits, not features.
By implementing the power of asking you will experience new
levels of success and stifle your competition.
Enjoy the abundance of success that comes with the power of
asking and may your new found closing confidence be your
constant companion.
Until February, good luck and good closing.
Tim Breithaupt
Trainer / Speaker / Author
Spectrum Training Solutions Inc.
Ph: (403) 269-2626
Fax: (403) 269-3483
www.spectrain.com
tim@spectrain.com
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