SELLING FOR LIFE

If you were asked to describe your closing skills how would you respond? Good, excellent or extraordinary?

Here are the top 10 skills of extraordinary closers.  There are really only 9 but who ever has a top 9 list?  So I added one at the bottom, let’s see how many you can check off.

10.  They get prospects to agree to make a decision.  Yes and no are both decisions, think it over is not.

9.    They don’t make inappropriate quotes or presentations.  They only present when the buyer has agreed there is a problem they have to fix and will give them a Y/N answer after they see the solution.

8.    They get to decision makers.  Need I say more?

7.    They attempt to close.  I know it sounds crazy but have you ever hesitated to ask for the business?

6.    They have closing urgency.  They know allowing the process to drag on only invites competition and lowers the probability of making the sale.

5.    They won’t accept put offs.  Any questions?

4.    They have a personal buying cycle that supports a shorter, more efficient, selling cycle.

3.    They have no need for approval.  They will not allow being “liked” to get in the way of saying or doing the right thing for the prospect.

2.     They control their emotions and stay focused on the problem.

1.     They know when it’s over and time to move on.

So, how did you do?  If you got all ten, great!  If not think about which one would have the greatest impact on your success today and start there.

When you don't make the sale, who is to blame?  Is it the economy?  Is it your competition?  Is it your company?  OR could it be you?  Good sales people know that when they don"t get the sale it is no one’s fault but their own.  They assess what happened so they can learn from it. As Malcolm Gladwell would say in his book Outliers you are just making progress towards your 10,000 hours.

• Do you have an effective sales process for moving opportunities from suspect to prospect to customer?
• Are you preparing for every sales call with a pre-call plan? 
• Do you ask quality questions that help the prospect uncover issues that are compelling enough to solve?
• Do you know when and why to walk away?
• Are you always asking for introductions so you always have someone else to call?

Control the one thing you can.  You!