Flooring Sales Tip: Closing Part I ~ That work
BUDDY WISDOM
Columnist at Floor Trends Magazine. Also, author of Selling Retail Floor Covering - A Humanistic Approach by Buddy Wisdom-2021 Edition - semi-retired -
Buddy Wisdom is the author of Selling Retail Floorcovering - A Humanistic Approach (2015 Edition) See link below.
“Most sales have been won or loss long before we ask for the commitment. Trying to make up for a poor sales presentation by coming up with a magical close is like nailing Jell-O to the wall. It doesn’t stick and it makes a mess.” -- J Oliver Crom and Michael Crom -- “The Sales Advantage”
When I initially began writing about sales, I made a premature quote that stated, “You will never see an article on closing.” I believed, (and still believe,) that the most effective close is to simply ask for the order (the DIRECT CLOSE) and often enough but not so early that you annoy the prospect. In short, any time the customer seems interested and all the parts of the sale appear to have gone well;ask! When the salesperson has done the requisite groundwork for information gathering and has addressed the specific needs of the prospect, closing should not be difficult. A close is really only asking for a commitment.
I once called them “tricky closes.” Then upon some persuasion from colleagues and a little thinking of my own, I began to realize that a “close” may be of many forms and that good “closing” merely delves into the psychology of the buyer’s thinking. I also realized that I was more than occasionally using "closes" and didn't even recognize it because I was speaking naturally to the customer. Therefore, quality closes may be thought of as “distinctive” or even “connected” rather than “tricky.” Closes are simply vehicles creating a favorable opportunity to ask for the order with a creative twist that emphasizes credible thoughts that the customer may not have thoroughly considered.
Closing methods are one of the most popular topics in the selling business. For a sale to exist there is no getting around closing the sale. No close – no sale. So, you certainly don’t want to not close. What incentive or nudge do they need? Is it simply “buyer’s remorse” lingering in their minds? What might create the added confidence to buy or show the silliness of not buying? What might create another reason to buy or even an emotional motive to buy?
Closing techniques, when needed, only facilitate buying decisions. Closing techniques simply give you additional tools, if used wisely, to consummate the order. Closing techniques, based on the situation, your personality, and enough mental practicing skills, should feel natural to both you and the prospect. If your close in any way feels out of place or manipulative; do not use them. Instead say, “Everything appears in order, shall we get this process moving for you?” – or the equivalent phraseology. (Is that a close or a trial close.)
Trial closes
Periodically, it is important in closing to undertake a prospect’s perspective or “way of thinking” in order to evaluate their buying readiness within the selling process, which is how I define a “trial close.” Normally, trial-closing questions call for opinions. Closing questions call for decisions. When you have asked the trial close question, as with most other closes, be quiet, watching and listening carefully for their response.
Useful trial questions such as “How does this fit your room?” … “What do you think of this concept?” … How does this look so far? … Is this what you had in mind? ... What are your thoughts? … “Assuming we want to move ahead with this, when would you need this installed?” are all practical in understanding your customer’s buying readiness. Invent your own.
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Obviously, I have decided that an article on “closing techniques” is worthy of exploration and discussion. While this article is not designed to be an encyclopedia of the multitudes of all the crazy “closes” in circulation, I plan to reveal through research (as always) the most effective and the least see-through methods that work. Of course, this subjective and discretionary selection process makes this authorship mostly unique rather than any bestowed genius of my own. Still, there are some interesting ideas of my own that I use naturally which are especially useful to the floor covering industry.
One of the most comical things to watch is someone without sales training trying to close a sale who has never done so before. They usually, one-sidedly believe that they are a natural born salesperson based on certain typecasts or some inherent aggressiveness of their own. “I can sell ice to an Eskimo,” or “I hit them hard and often,” they say. Actually, they are simply posing as salespeople and are glaringly obnoxious while shattering the standing of qualified salespeople who try to treat people like actual people
When you're trying to sell something, the worst thing you can do is sound like you’re trying to sell something. Unfortunately, people new to selling often try to execute presupposed sales techniques that buyers can spot a mile away. For example, the worst sales advice in the world is also the most common: "A.B.C. -- Always Be Closing." The truth – customers hate it when sellers hammer away at them.
Therefore, closing techniques can be both effective and dangerous. You can over-close; especially with sophisticated buyers where distinct antagonism occurs when any closing technique beyond asking for the order is used.
As an example, consider the conversation offered by Neil Rackham in his book Spin Selling (1988.): “At one point in the call, the salesperson used the ASSSUMPTIVE CLOSE. Saying 'Mr. P., you’ve agreed that our products…are cheaper than your present supplier, so shall we make our first delivery, of say, next month?’ The buyer said nothing. He opened a drawer in his desk and slowly took out a box of 3 x 5 index cards. He shuffled through the box and selected one with ‘ASSUMPTIVE CLOSE’ typed on it, placing it face up upon his desk. ‘This is your first chance,’ he said. ‘I give people two. If you use just one more closing technique on me, then it’s no sale. Just so you know what I’m watching for, look through these cards.’ Then he handed the cards across the desk to the seller. On each card, a well-known closing technique was typed. The seller went pale – but he didn’t try force closing again.”
So, before we move on to closes that are effective and work, here are some of the worst closing techniques, all of which are still widely taught today in sales seminars, and all are guaranteed to annoy the bejeezus out of your customers. Here are a few in all their awful glory:
Lame Technique #1: The Assumptive Close: You ask the customer to make a minor decision that assumes that the full buying decision has been made. Example: "Do you want that in the hunter purple or the hunter orange?" Expected Outcome: The customer states a preference and you ask him to sign on the dotted line. Actual Outcome: The customer looks at you like you’re out of your mind and says: "I didn’t say I was going to buy anything."
Lame Technique #2: The Fly-fish Close: Your promise something valuable then take it away if a decision isn’t made now. Example: "We have a special offer – a 15 percent discount – but only if you decide to buy now." Expected Outcome: The customer says, "Wow! I had better buy now! Where do I sign?"Actual Outcome: The customer feels pressured. The customer thinks, "You must think I’m a complete idiot who thinks she can’t get that discount, or a better one, if I hold out for a while." However, advertised “Sales” with ending dates are a different exception as they create confirmable deadlines that may create urgency.
Lame Technique #3: The Reverse Close: You ask a customer who’s already saying "no" a question intended to elicit a "no" that actually means "yes." Example: "Is there any reason that you wouldn’t do business with our company?" Expected Outcome: The customer says "no" and you say "Great! Sign on the bottom line." Actual Outcome: The customer says "yes!" and says that he’d never do business with somebody who’d try such a patently ridiculous ploy.
Lame Technique #4: The Yes Man Close: You ask a series of questions that naturally elicit a "yes" answer, building momentum to get the final yes. Example: "Do you expect first rate service?" "Do you believe that you deserve the best?" "Do you always try to find the best value?" "Are you going to take this opportunity to get the best value and best service?" Expected Outcome: The customer says the final "YES" and signs the contract. Actual Outcome: The customer walks out of your showroom for wasting her time with ridiculous leading questions.
Lame Technique # 5: The Box Close: Here is a true story of an annoying close that backfired. The reason the close failed in this story will become obvious. I had a sharpie new salesperson who had just read a book entitled “The Secrets of Closing.” Moreover, he had a secret close called the “BOX CLOSE.”
The “Box Close” he learned was where you greeted every new prospect with a clipboard and noting every objection. (A clipboard idea I tried many years earlier based at the time on so called expert advice – but abandoned the concept because customers do not like to feel qualified nor are they partial to the use of power symbols.) When he felt he had found the last objection, he resolved each objection with a rebuttal thus putting the lid on her box and then forcing the order onto the customer.
The woman went squeamish on him. “I hate the color.” “I hate the style.” “I can’t afford it and on and on. My sales representative reviewed his notes, which he called “T Sheets” and eventually feeling finagled said, “Lady you are a liar and I have notes of your comments to prove it.” (From the beginning, the salesperson should have done a tactful review and reinforced her original comments.)
Her Husband who was a huge man, dressed in a denim jacket with a cleanly trimmed short beard, grabbed my salesperson by the buttoned-down collar and tie and pulled him up from his chair said, “Did you just call my wife a liar.” The salesperson replied rather meekly with, “Well Sir, she did lie to me, didn’t she?” The man said, “Well I guess she did, didn’t she. I guess I’ve just gotten use to it after all of these years.” Of course, I do not recommend calling your customer a liar, but the salesperson eventually managed to write the order; he never used the box close again. True Story.
Consumers today are savvier than ever and are aware of certain sales tactics that may have them running in the other direction and toward your competitors. The Internet dispatches immediate information at the click of the button, enabling consumers to gather the information and data they need to make an educated purchasing decision.
As such, the sales person’s role has evolved. Instead of taking the time to educate the prospect about their products and services, salespeople are finding that their prospects are already aware of the options available to them. In response to this, the top sales people use their time with prospects to uncover what the prospect already knows about their products. Then the salesperson can help sift through the mounds of data the prospect has already collected about their industry and those products to make the best decision.
Furthermore, if you are overly focusing on the close, then you are stuck in your own head. And, if you’re stuck in your own head, then you are making the sales process about you and not the prospect. As a result, you can’t be focusing on the prospect and how you can best fill his or her needs.
See: Part Two of Closing tomorrow.
Buddy Wisdom, Sales Author, [email protected]