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In the Media
Are You Are You Sure You Want to Always Be Closing?
Appeared in The Insurance Record Magazine, March 2011
Have you ever seen a movie with salespeople in the film? They were often portrayed as obnoxious, pushy people. You may remember hearing ABC-- Always be closing—which was the mantra for sales success. I don’t see it that way. Instead of closing, why not always be opening?
What are you saying? When I think of closing I think of something ending or restricting. Broadway shows close. Books close. Doors close. Yes, we talk about the sale closing meaning it’s come to an end. Of course you want to get the sale, but you really don’t want the process to end. You want your business relationship with your customer to continue and grow.
For some salespeople, the idea of the sales close does mean the end. That’s a dangerous idea. You’re going to miss an important strategy to build long-term customer relationships. Selling really just continues after the contract is signed. Now you get to earn your keep. If you’re a successful sales professional, you’re going to focus on the results of what you bring to your customer. You’ll ask questions about the impact of your work on your customer’s operation, customers, or employees. You’ll be looking for ways where your work has impacted your customer’s bottom line to increase revenue or reduce costs. That doesn’t sound like the end of anything to me.
Wrong focus. When sales professionals only focus on closing they’re looking at the wrong end of the sales process. Why? When you look at the entire sales process, the most important work is at the beginning of the process. That’s when you’re building trust and credibility for a long term customer relationship. Selling is based on relationships. It’s almost impossible to persuade unless you have trust.
Do you think you can be an effective “closer” without credibility? Dream on. How you begin your sales process, the statements you make, the promises you make are all parts of building your credibility. Sherri Elliott-Yeary, author of Ties to Tattoos, refers to successful business relationships having an ROR. That’s Return on Relationship. An ROR is what it takes to get sales, not closing skills. Doing all the work opening the dialogue that builds the relationship and produces a reason to do business is how you get the sale.
Opening skills. What skills do you think you need to have to be good at opening the sales process? Building a relationship requires you to learn about your customer’s business and hear what his concerns are. That requires having an open attitude. That’s part of good listening skills. When you listen effectively, your customer feels comfortable talking with you about issues he wants to address. You get honest answers to your questions so you can uncover areas where your products and services might help improve a customer’s operation. You get to do your job.
There is only one person in business who you hope has a focus on closing. It’s your customer. How else is he going to be open to the possibility of working with you as his new supplier? Of course that means he’s going to have to close the relationship with his existing supplier.
Maura Schreier-Fleming works with business and sales professionals
on skills and strategies so they can sell more and be more productive at
work. She is the author of Real-World Selling for
Out-of-this-World Results which is available at
www.BestatSelling.com. She founded her company Best@Selling in
1997. You can reach her at 972.380.0200 or
info@Bestatsellling.com.
(c) Copyright 2011 Maura
Schreier-Fleming. All rights
reserved. |
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