Selling: How Good Are You in The Last 3 feet?

Selling: How Good Are You in The Last 3 feet?

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This was the question our sales manager used to ask us at our sales meetings at the Keele service station on the M6 motorway many, many years ago.

We'd be out seeing clients and selling our various products and services.

And we’d be practicing our openings.

We had a great gathering process. (After all, selling really takes place in the gathering stage as people sell themselves in their answers to your well- crafted questions)

We had powerful, passionate presentations.

We were objective with handling objections

But then it came down where the rubber meets the road and that was in the concluding or closing stage.

That was the last three feet.

And of course,

You could be brilliant at opening, great at gathering, have powerful presentations, handling objections, but if you couldn't deal with that final bit where you'd actually got to ask for the order, then it was no good.

That last three feet was what it was all about.

Now, there's been lots of talk over the years about consultative selling and I'm a great believer in consultative selling.

It's finding out what it is that people want to buy and not trying to force my solutions on them and I'm sure you are exactly the same.

After all, we help people find solutions to their problems or capitalise on opportunities, don't we?

But nevertheless, despite this consultative approach, when it comes to actually securing the order, that's when we need to be really great, in the last three feet.

That's when the harvest takes place. So how do we do it?

Well, it's quite simple, really.

1. We need to know the words to use

2. we need to practise those words until they become part of who we are. After all, as you may have heard me say before, people will never consistently do who they aren't.

So we need to find out the words, we need to write the words down. We need to learn the words. We need to practise the words so when the time comes we can deliver them with power, with passion and with purpose.

In that way, we are brilliant in the last three feet and we manage to secure the business that's rightfully ours.

And the third part of that equation is the right mindset.

This is the mindset I use.

I really care if I make the sale, but I don't mind if I don't.

And with that mindset in mind, it makes life very easy because I really want to help my clients and potential clients to get the outcomes that they want, either solving a problem or capitalising on an opportunity for them.

I don't mind if we don't go ahead, if it isn't right for them but I do care enough to do my best to make it go ahead.

I'm sure you can take this idea away, simple though it is, but powerful though it is, and use it in your business.

I wish you every success in all your adventures in life. Go on then...

Peter

Peter Thomson

Editor and ‘In the Last 3 Feet’’ Publisher tgiMondays

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PPS: If I can help you with any ideas shared, send me an email to [email protected] and let's start a conversation