The Real Secret To Closing Sales

By Author: Claude Whitacre
Total Articles: 164
Comment this article

The subject brought up at sales training the most is usually closing. You know, that magic thing you say at the end of your demonstration that makes people buy. After studying selling technique for years, I had memorized, & could use, enough technique to close for 6 hours & never repeat myself. I'm not bragging. Anyone who can read a book on closing could do the same. But I was obsessed with closing. Here is the secret I learned.

Here is a question you should answer before you read the rest of this article.
Think of something that you bought recently that was something you really wanted. A car, a boat, a new plasma TV, whatever. Make sure it was expensive, & of great quality. Got it? Now answer this question. How many closes did it take for you to buy? 100? 25? I'm guessing that the answer is either one or none.
Didn't the salesman use the Ben Franklin close? The Impending event close?
The Take-Away close? What really grabbed you? I'll guess that it didn't take any of these. So what is a closing technique & why do we use them. My definition of closing is to get a commitment to buy without ...
... the desire to buy.
I used to spend an average of 3 hours in the home. 45 minutes on the demo & the rest of the time closing. I wore the people into buying. At the end they were exhausted & so was I.
After a decade of hard closing ( & closing is hard, otherwise everyone would be good at it) I found the secret. Here it is.
If you build enough desire for the product closing becomes absolutely automatic. If the prospect sees $1,200 in value & they like what you are showing them, $599 is an automatic "yes".
We all know how to do that. Demonstrate conveniences ( by doing any demonstrating , at all, you set yourself in the top 50%) , show quality of materials, ease of use, durability, and specificity of features to the prospect's needs.

Qualifying as to the specific machine & benefits that they want. comparing your chosen product or service to what they are familiar with. You get the idea.
Eventually, when giving a sales presentation, I didn't use more closes, but less. The last several years I used one close & maybe answered one objection. then I knew they either bought or never would. Here was my secret close: " Is that O.K.?" If they said "yes" my next thing I said was "Ohhh, alright."

Ask yourself; What close would work on you, if you did not truly want the product? None. What closing technique is needed to get you to buy something you really want? None.

Read that last paragraph again. It is the key to closing sales. almost all sales ae either lost or made way before you ever get to the closing. The close is simply a detail, like giving a receipt.

And if you are seeing something that you really don't want. What close would work to make you buy? None.
If you build enough Desire for your product or service, & give enough value in your product, They will say " I want it " faster than you can even remember how to use the " double back flip reverse close.

When they want to buy what you are offering, selling is almost effortless.
Small Business Marketing and Local Advertising expert Claude Whitacre is author of the book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual. You can purchase the book for $19.95 at http://www.claudewhitacre.com. You can also download your Free copy of the complete book at http://local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com/