The Myth of the Perfect Closing Script

Most seasoned salespeople are familiar with Secrets of Closing the Sale, the seminal 1984 classic authored by Zig Ziglar in which he promises to deliver “Over 100 specific closes for professional salespeople PLUS over 700 sales questions and dozens of persuasion procedures to help doctors, ministers, household executives, teachers, parents, and others effectively ‘sell’ their ideas and concepts.”  It was a groundbreaking book at the time it was published, and I still have my copy proudly displayed on the shelf of my office.  

When I first purchased this book, I thought it sounded almost too good to be true. And as it turns out, there’s a reason for that, because with decades of experience in this industry, I can now say with certainty that chasing the perfect closing script is the wrong thing to do if you want to increase your sales.  

Regardless of what someone happens to be selling, the major obstacles to closing the sale are procrastination and uncertainty on the part of the buyer.  There are lots of reasons that a buyer might delay on making a decision, many of which are completely out of the salesperson’s control. The idea that there is some kind of perfect closing script out there to change the psychology of the buyer is a myth.  

Contrary to popular belief, there is no special magic to closing. Instead of chasing after unicorns, salespeople are better off to focus instead on aspects that are within their control.  Take, for example the opening.  Every sale begins with a successful opening. Opening is actually the most critical part of the process because without a successful opening, there can be no close.

What gets a 747 off the ground?

I travel about 50 times per year, and I still marvel at the fact that a two-ton piece of steel tubing can thrust itself through the air at a speed of hundreds of miles per hour and manage to lift up into the air. Opening a sales dialogue is very similar in many ways – getting the deal off the ground requires a certain amount of speed and tension.  The greater the weight of the deal, the more thrust and lift force are required.  

That said, there are a few strategies for capturing the attention of prospects. The Sales Starter is a great way to get the prospect’s attention and open the conversation. Here are the top 5 Sales Starters that Tyson Group recommends in its Away-Game Selling training:

1. Begin by asking a question. The goal with this Sales Starter is to get the prospect to start saying, “Yes.”  One of the things the Miami Dolphins and Cleveland Browns do when they’re meeting a potential partner is to ask a question bearing on time in the very beginning of the conversation:  “How much time is too much to talk today?” This immediately signals to the prospect that their time is respected, they will have control of the meeting, and that it will be a 2-way conversation. It also serves as a kind of trial close by allowing the potential buyer to tell the salesperson how they would like the process to go, based on the resources they currently have at their disposal.
2. Start with an authentic compliment.  A compliment is frequently an attention-grabber, so long as it’s sincere and doesn’t sound too gratuitous. This works best with someone who you are already familiar with, but doing a bit of homework on LinkedIn can allow you to learn more about the prospect and their work, and can provide an excellent basis for opening a discussion.  It can also help you to further qualify the prospect by learning more about their values.
3. Educate the prospect.  Learn enough about your marketplace, industry, and craft so that you’re always adding value.  Having a few key facts and statistics at your fingertips can help to open a conversation, as long as you can tie them directly to a desired benefit. Remember, this initial conversation is all about overcoming the prospect’s inherent preoccupation with whatever else they are doing – and in order to do that, they need to believe that the knowledge you are hoping to impart will help them achieve the outcome they are looking for.
4. Startle. This Sales Starter is the big gun. It makes buyers think to themselves, “Did they just say what I think they said?”  It’s not always appropriate to use, but when used properly it can be very effective. Most salespeople unknowingly stack the deck against themselves by trying to create an artificial sense of harmony with the buyer through small talk and pleasantries. While a certain amount of that can help to break the ice, too much of it can eliminate the tension required to move the deal forward. So, it’s critical to find a way to deliberately bridge out of the pleasantries and into the real conversation.  One time I was with one of my new hires at a meeting with a VP-level client contact.  After small initial small talk, she said, “Did you know that your sales people are stealing from you?” We both looked at her with our jaws wide open, not knowing what to say.  After a pregnant pause, she continued, “Every time they go into a sales call without a plan and a process, they steal time from the prospect, and from the company.”  In that case, the startle approach worked very effectively, and got the prospect’s full attention.

Bringing it in for a Landing

Using Sales Starters effectively can create a great opening, and help to establish a connection and rapport with the prospect.  But in order to close the deal, the salesperson ultimately needs to be brave and confident enough to move the conversation forward.

In order to close business, you can’t be willing to live in a world of perpetual maybes.  This means that, you need to be willing to lose business in order to close business.  Because, at the end of the day, every sale comes down to whether the salesperson is confident enough to ask the buyer one question: “Are you in or out?”  Sometimes, this question serves as a catalyst to closing the deal in your favor.  In other cases, it means walking away from an ambivalent prospect to find another more suitable buyer.  

If you’ve taken the right steps throughout the sales process, the closing is less a function of magical thinking than it is of observing the natural laws of physics and supporting them with solid mechanics.  If the plane has been successfully launched and navigated, ultimately it will come down for landing. After all, we have gravity in our favor – so, closing is simply the act of bringing the deal to its natural conclusion.