Stop Being Average, Be Excellent! Creative Closes

Close The Sale

Low sales numbers for salespeople start with the inability to close the sale. You spend time prospecting, making cold calls, following up but continue to fail in the close. It’s discouraging and it is why so many salespeople continue to do less and less over their career. In fact, did you know that top closers outperform the bottom closers 10-to-1? That is a pretty large gap. If you want more sales, you have to learn how to close more sales. If you want to close sales that you may not be closing, it doesn’t just happen because you prospect more people or follow up more. Many use to think you just need more opportunities [leads] however more often then not, you are simply burning leads and missing opportunities. You must learn to be a better closer. 

Here is the harsh reality; when you don’t close, you lose. When you don’t close on your proposal, you end up giving up something and closing on someone else’s proposal. The cost of the no close is enormous to both your wallet and your morale. 

 

Here are 5 techniques To Becoming A Better Closer: 

1. Commit to Being Better Than Average, Be Excellent!
   The first thing you must do to become great at sales is to commit to “Being Excellent—Not Just Average”. Sales can be a painful profession for the average and bottom performers, yet greatly rewarding for the top! Those that live, eat, and breathe their profession become great. I have never met a GREAT closer that was not “all in all the time” and completely driven by his/her trade. All great success through history has been preceded by a commitment to being great, reinforced each day by the continuing commitment to being great. If you aren’t great you are average!

2. Train Multiple and Creative Closes

   While there are easy sales that close easy, the rest require more effort and persistence. If you only have 3 or 4 closes is not enough to close a resistant buyer. Closing the customer is like taking a trip: you are limited by the amount of gas you have in the tank. A great closer will have more closes than the customer has objections, excuses, and reasons not to buy.

3. Persist Until You Close

   It’s about asking one more time. This is what separates the closers from the order takers. You have to have a toolbox that is full of closes and continue to ask, persist, and to figure out other ways to circle back after being told no. Being able to reposition yourself to ask again is ultimately what separates your average. This level of persistence is a social issue because we have all been made to believe it is bad, wrong, rude or unprofessional to be persistent, yet the reality is that persistence is necessary as well as vital to getting the extra more sales. If you completely believe in your product, service, and the company you represent one must be willing to persist to make gain sales and win customers. All real closers have had a customer ask, “Are you pressuring me?” To then reply, “No, but I am willing to go there if that is what it takes, because I know I have the best solution for you!” Some of my best customers required persistence to close!

4. Align Your Financial Goals to Closing
   

   Here is a fact, in 2017 Career Builders, NBC, and CBS reported that 80% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck? According to a new survey, the majority of Americans are caught in a desperate cycle of working just to make ends meet. The bottom line is being an average closer is a failing formula. If you’re struggling each month it’s because you haven’t closed yourself on what you want out of life. If you can’t close yourself you can’t close your customers and just getting by is painful, failing process—you decide, does it need to change? If you are struggling with the close you may need to review your own personal financial goals. Financial goals are tied directly in with what you want out of life and when your financial needs are clear you will find yourself closing more sales. Don’t just go through the motions, presentations don’t pay the bills, closing sales pay the bills.

5. Train to Become A Excellent Closer

   Great athletes know there is a difference between learning, practicing, performing, and winning. Great Athletes know how to position themselves to take the ball and score. As well they know to win they have to leave everything on the field. Researchers say you need to have practiced for 10,000 hours, or roughly ten years, to become a genius at something. You don’t get paid to call people and take orders; you get paid to close the sale. The NFL Player gets paid the big $$ not just show up to the game, but to win the game. It takes skill determination and persistence and it takes skill to close the sale.

Don’t believe that being an excellent salesperson takes little or no skill or determination and training. For an average salesperson the checks are too small and the failures too often. Being average takes more effort than being great. Learn to be an excellent closer and you will love sales and have fun being successful.