Closing the deal is not the issue.

Very often, people feel that great salespeople are the ones that "close" lots of deals. "He's a closer", he can push deals to signature.

I disagree.

The Domino Effect

Closing a deal is the end result of a chain reaction that was triggered at the beginning, and very much like the "force" that has put things in motion, in the beginning, it impacts - through all links of the chains and stages or momentum of your deal - the velocity or "ease of close". The easy ones? Those are those sweet deals that closed very quickly: the ones which were initiated by the customer/prospect themselves, where they were already convinced and needed your "stuff" is an easy one. But unfortunately, that doesn't happen too much.

Reality is a bit different, but there are ways to mimic these sweet slam-dunk deals. Think of The Domino Effect, where a small block triggers the large block to fall in the end. A very smart positioned, calculated, well-thought-off action results in a much larger effect later on. Typically, it is that kind of deal where you eventually knock on the door of your prospect, after having studied them well, grabbed their attention with a carefully constructed story that includes triggers that resonate with them, engage, make them think, (inter)act, discover proven value which then almost coincidentally move into a smooth landing with signature. In these kinds of deals, closing seems to be a formality.?And so it should, as your target is further down, towards onboarding, usage, impact, and growth.

Reculer pour mieux sauter

There is no excellent English translation for this French one-liner. In essence, it's about sometimes going back on your tracks to jump further. Can you relate to that?

Too often, you dive into the sales project without asking the right questions that can help you towards a smooth closing. You are the one person that makes it difficult (for yourself).

Imagine you would always ask these questions to your prospect/customer:

• “Can you tell me what the business outcome is that you want to achieve this year?"
• "How would you describe the one key attribute your company has that will help you drive growth and expand market share?"
• "What is it that truly differentiates your organization from the many competitive choices your customers have today?
• "In your opinion, what do you perceive as the biggest risks in achieving that goal/success/..., and what is your strategy to mitigate those?”
• "What is the impact of that problem/risk. What is the cost in terms of frustration, market share, resources, revenue, employee time, retention, customer satisfaction, overhead,...?"

These questions do three things:

1. How experienced is the person in his/her organization and how much can he/she impact? Or see where impact is needed. I don't want to talk about C-level, as - depending on what type of service or solution, budget, etc,... a person being knowledgeable can be the right driver, with C-level just signing off based upon that person's expert advice.
2. How "ready to consider/buy" is your counterpart (understanding of the elements driving/impacting the business
3. How clear are they on their readiness to change?

Asking these questions might include new conversation partners for you, open up the doors towards the decision-maker (as mentioned, the one with the signature is not always the decision-maker!) But on the other hand, a 'functional user' of your service or solution will not always be able to answer the questions above. So, if he/she answers that they need to ask someone, it is important that you include this last person in your conversation.

The 9-meter jump

Now review the questions above again. Now imagine again that you:

1. Already have an answer to all of these questions. Or a very good benchmark, range, similar examples.
2. That you guide your customer/prospect through the business outcome by working together on giving proof to impact, outcome,...
3. That you navigate them past the risks because you bring your expertise from many situations in which you helped people do the same. And you are open, transparent, sharing this expertise with them?

It's not hard to think that you will be perceived as an adviser who understands the triggers, the items that can influence the results, the impact, even the careers of people and the organization at the other side of the table.

That's the 9-meter jump. Going that extra mile, take those steps back in order to jump further, not "having to close".

In my experience, this kind of conversation helped me to be "introduced downwards" into an organization by the right people, call them decision-makers if you want (but very often they were not signing contracts but very strong advisers within the organization). My next steps were simple: prove the value and collaboratively move towards a "kick-off" (call it: signature) of what we jointly agreed upon. With a focus on helping them further, onboard, use, and prove the value further up to even expanding.?That's quite different from "having to close."

Sales & Sales Managers - how to coach (yourself)

As said, your difficulty in closing is a result, a symptom of not managing the most valuable aspect of your sale properly. Closing is not a stage, it is a result of what happened before. You must "earn" the close. If you don't close (fast enough, smoothly enough), or when they are still objections: you didn't do a proper job before - mostly at the start of your sale.

To improve, and in order to coach yourself (or be coached) when you are already in your sales track - looking back, ask yourself these simple questions:

1. How did you earn trust? Did you? What is the proving that?
2. How and where did you establish value? Did you really? Where is the proof?
3. How did you prove the necessary understanding of the customer’s timing, priorities, and processes?
4. How did you do that together, in a proven way, with your counterpart at the customer/prospect?

For sales managers: these questions should be answered throughout, every day, and not only at the end of the quarter.

I know this is sales basics 101, but very often in sales coaching, this is still forgotten.

Tell me, what are your thoughts?

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