Enter Sandman - When "Closing" Begins

For years, Mariano Rivera was the most talented closer in baseball. He had 58 career saves against my beloved Red Sox, including six of them in the postseason (for all of you Yankee fans, he has also blown more saves against the Red Sox (16) than any other closer – just had to get that in there). He is considered by many, Boston fans included, to be the greatest closer in the history of baseball. The guy threw a cut-fastball that, unofficially, broke more bats than any pitcher of record (one estimate has him causing more than $700,000 in broken bat damages). He was wicked. As soon as “Enter Sandman” began playing inside the confines of Yankee Stadium, fans rose to their feet to bear witness to greatness. The man could flat out close (except in the 2004 ALCS – again, had to put it in there).

What does that have to do with closing in sales? Everything. Absolutely everything. As a salesperson, you are celebrated for your wins – your closes. How many pelts have you put on the wall lately? Are you at or above quota this month? Great, go do it again. And again. And as soon as you stop doing it, you’ll probably have to find work elsewhere. That’s the reality of what we do. It’s all about how many deals you can bring over the finish line, on time. It’s all about closing.

Or is it? Well. That depends on how you define “closing.” To me, the close is not about the arrival at a particular destination – the end game. No. The close is all about the journey. It’s about the process of getting there – the execution of each stage during the sales cycle. That is closing.  

Of course, the glory arrives when the purchase order is safely in hand. The high-fives, the SPIF money, the big commission check, the recognition from sales management. It all happens after you mark that deal “Closed – Won” in Salesforce. But you know as well as I do what it took to get there. The LinkedIn research. The unanswered calls and unreturned emails. The product demo that blew up 15 minutes in. The competitor cutting out your hamstrings with an unreasonably low price. The stern negotiator in procurement who just took money out of your pocket by threatening to walk away for a low cost alternative. The legal beagle who won’t budge on indemnity. Your significant other telling you to stop checking email about “that stupid deal” on your phone. And on…and on…and on it goes. The actual close was the result of your ongoing execution. It was about your ability to get a prospect to agree to the steps that moved them from being a "Stage 2 - Qualify" deal to a "Stage 3 – Evaluation" deal. And then executing against the exit criteria to bring it to its next stage. It’s about the little wins along the way. The little wins that add up and turn into a properly completed sales cycle.

But hold on - back to Mariano. He currently holds the Major League Baseball record for saves with 652. It’s a record that is considered by many to be unbreakable. To put it in perspective, someone would have to average 40 saves per year for 16 years to get to 640. It’s almost unthinkable. His preparation, repeated execution, and strikingly consistent results set him apart from his peers. 

But his ability to close didn’t start in the 9th inning. It started long before that. It started with his physical and mental preparation before he was called upon to close the game. The announcers rarely discussed the hours spent studying video of a hitter’s tendencies. Or his bullpen session routine that included a 3 pound iron ball and a consistent pitch sequence. Or the time away from the ballpark he spent stretching to improve his mobility and overall ability to stay healthy. Or the unflappable mental approach, whether he won or lost a game. Or the hundreds of thousands of pitches he threw during his baseball career to become a master of control. The “closing” of a game for Mariano began long before inning number nine. In fact, the act of closing never actually stops.

Think back to the deal you consider your best win. It’s probably your favorite because of some combination of the following: a big commission check, knocked out a competitor, gave a killer demo or sales pitch, and were able to solve some complex challenges, among others. It was probably a hard fought win. Now think back to when you first made contact with the opportunity. Think of all the calls, demos, emails, insecure pipeline reviews with your manager, objections handled, committed dates that passed, etc. Think of all the effort it took during the sales process for you to earn the label of “closer.” The workload likely spanned weeks, months, and for some of our enterprise folks out there, years. 

And while the glory may be in the close, the true closer, like Mariano himself, is the one who takes pride in the details of each step required to get there. The true closer prepares. Incessantly. The true closer focuses on moving deals from stage to stage, step by step. In fact, to the true closer, the sale itself is just the last piece of a well assembled puzzle. In many aspects, the actual close is the easiest part of the process.

Mariano Rivera had a tremendous amount of natural talent. On top of that, he had a blue-collar worth ethic and a commitment to the pursuit of perfecting his craft. That’s what makes him a likely first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2019. Do you classify yourself as a salesperson who works on his/her craft on a daily basis? Have you gotten better at your job today? If so, and you’re regularly improving your pitch, your demos, your negotiations, then maybe – just maybe – you too can compare yourself with the greatest closer of all time. 

Just don’t tell anyone in Boston I said that.