Decision Time

“Let me think about it” Have you ever run into this when you ask a closing question?

It’s one of the most common stalling techniques that customers rely on. They’re stalling because you’ve asked them to do the hardest things for people to do: make a decision.

They don’t want to make a decision because they lack confidence and certainty in themselves! They doubt you because they don’t trust or believe in themselves.

It’s not because of you, the price, the product or your company. It’s because they need help in boosting their confidence and certainty in making a decision.

Don’t shy away from this reaction. After all, it IS your job to help customers deal with the internal pressures and reactions keeping them from getting what they really want, isn’t it?

So, what are you waiting for? Help the customer! And you’ll both get what you want.

Daniel Jacobs, 2017

Helping People

Even when they see that your solution will solve their problem, some people are hard to help. Internal resistance factors prevent them from making a decision and taking action.

 

The best thing you can do for a customer is to help them get past these subconscious reactions and get what they really do want. Believe me, they will thank you for it in the end.

Daniel Jacobs, 2017

Cheap But Good Advice

1. What is your purpose? To impress them or move them?
2. Start talking only when they’re ready to start listening.
3. Your attention must be 100% on them; 0% on you.
4. Three key steps: A) Tell them what you’re going to tell them. B) Tell them. C) Tell them what you told them. (Hint: Make step “B” as short as possible)
5. You’re not a robot; don’t sound like one. Keep it fresh and new.
6. Don’t meander endlessly; speak with intention, certainty, and confidence.
7. Don’t fake it. If you don’t believe it or know it, don’t say it.
8. Don’t tell everything you know; they won’t want to know it anyway.
9. Intentionally create times where you don’t talk. Let it breathe.
10. Speak neither too soft or too loud, nor too fast or too slow.
11. Don’t wander around aimlessly; use body motion with intention.
12. Give them something of value in exchange for their attention.
13. End with three points worth remembering.
14. Stop talking before they stop listening.

Daniel Jacobs, 2017

The Real Objection

Many times, objections that customers come up with are generalized reasons to stop the process and not the real objection. When they say “just not sure,” “need to wait,” or “it costs too much,” there is always a specific reason underneath.

Objections of this type indicate that an earlier step in the process is incomplete and needs to be handled. In some cases, however, just reminding them of their original purpose will be enough to rebuild the momentum to continue closing the deal.

Once you have identified a particular objection, you can do one of the following three actions:

1. Acknowledge it and continue to the close.

      2. Answer it and proceed with the close

Or you can use a combination of all three:

      3. Question and isolate it as the real objection and the only thing that needs to be addressed. Answer it and move forward with the close.

Your job is to help customers get past the real internal barriers that are stopping them from getting what they really want. A master closer can effortlessly handle all objections and create the opportunity to seal the deal.

Daniel Jacobs, 2017

What Was Missing?

The most common question I’ve been asked when training salespeople, is how to close the deal. Everyone seems stuck on that final step in the process.

Now, I do admit that even with the study, practice, and experience that I’ve had in the trenches of selling and closing sales over the past twenty-five years, I would sometimes come up short. In those cases, I’d try to reason or persuade myself that I was “close,” and that I “almost” pulled off the “close.”

In trying to convince myself that every had done that could be done, I was still had this feeling that I could have done more. What was I missing?

Finally, the mystery and growing stress got to me, and I realized that I didn’t know what I didn’t know! But chance, there was a sales seminar happening locally that weekend, and I decided to get some help from an expert.

It turned out better than ever expected.  It was like he was reading my mind. Everything he said related directly to my problem, especially when he said this, “The step you’re stuck on, having difficulty with, or can’t seem to do, is NOT THE PROBLEM! It’s a symptom, NOT THE SOURCE of the problem, it’s always something earlier.”

It was like a WHACK ON THE SIDE OF THE HEAD, and just what I needed! This changed everything. I realized that grinding away endlessly trying to persuade or force the customer to buy, only intensified the resistance. The customer was not the problem, I was!

I was focusing on one step (closing the sale) in a series of actions leading to the particular result. And I was stuck on that one last step as the cause of all my trouble. But, it wasn’t. It was something earlier in the process that I left incomplete or did incorrectly. I was trying to take step eight before I had fully completed step six! No wonder I was having trouble.

This was groundbreaking; a game-changer if there ever was one! It not only opened the door to handling my problem but it gave me something I could do something about, today!

I had been focusing on the wrong target all this time. The trouble with the closing step meant that something earlier in the process had been skipped or was incomplete. All I had to do was find out what step was not completed and get it done, thoroughly.

I became aware of what every master closer knows: Ease in closing is based on how well you do each of the steps leading up to it.

Good selling really does makes for a smooth closing.

Daniel Jacobs, 2017

 

Get Your Priorities Straight

What should your attention be on while selling or closing sales? Should it be on?

1. You or the company you represent?

2. Your product or your service?

3. The features, advantages, or benefits or products/services?

4. Your good looks or your gift of gab?

5. Always be closing?

6. None of the above?

Congratulations, you’re right! That is if you answered #6!

The answer is that your attention must always be on the CUSTOMER and nothing but the client.

Put your attention on anything else, and you’re wasting your time and increasing your effort. Apparently, though, the hardest thing for anyone engaged in selling, closing, negotiations or mediations is to get their attention OFF themselves and on the person across the table from them. Yet, any master salesman will tell you:

“If you ever expect to close a deal, your attention must be 100% on the customer.”

Yes, if you’re just “taking orders” you can get away with thinking about something else at the same time, and it makes no difference. Especially if you remember to ask, “Do you want fries with that? ” But if you’re serious about closing sales your attention must be entirely on them.

I don’t know how to make this clearer except to say that if your attention is on yourself, your chances of closing a sale are slim to none.

Get your priorities straight. Leave your problems and worries at home. The customer is only concerned with THEIR PROBLEMS, not yours!

Daniel Jacobs

anewslantonclosing.com

Rejection: How To Handle

Be willing to show up and practice exposing yourself to rejection now, so that if/when it happens to you, you won’t automatically think that you are the problem. Don’t get into the habit of assuming that there is something wrong with you. Most of the time, it’s the prospect who is the problem. Some of the best-selling books, music, and art were summarily rejected by some of “the best” in the business before they went on to become massively successful.

Daniel Jacobs, 2017