Consultative, collaborative sales closes – 3 reliable methods

In previous blogs, I’ve written that the best sales people rarely close. This is because when working collaboratively with the customer decision-makers; everyone knows when it’s time to move forward. See more at Great Closers Rarely Close

This doesn’t mean that customers don’t occasionally need a friendly nudge. Whether the customer’s company is a privately held family business or a Fortune 500 enterprise, buying decisions are hard. We’re asking an individual to take accountability for a decision that affects their company, co-workers, external stakeholders and their personal performance. Often times the easiest path is not to make a decision and that is a very common reason for delays.

When we get into these situations, where decision-makers have all the information but are having a hard time moving forward, it’s our responsibility to help them work through this difficult, personal process. Since a lot of the concern is about how decisions affect others, the best way to help customers is to direct the conversation towards the impacts they’ve already agreed to. Three decision points that help customers are:

Timeline – During the sales process, it’s a good discipline to build a basic project timeline with the customer. This calls out key milestones and critical paths that show everyone what it looks like to be on the right road to success. Most importantly, a jointly created project plan that includes the purchase decision represents steps towards success that the customer agrees with along the way. Calling out milestones that they’ve already agreed upon is a natural part of the discussion that helps move decision-makers forward. This is part of a consultative, collaborative sales close.

Readiness – Part of a comprehensive project plan is company readiness. Decision delays result in less time for the company to prepare. Readiness comes in many categories. There may be required employee training. There may be things that other suppliers need to complete before work can begin. There may be community communication that cannot happen until the decision happens. Helping the customer acknowledge this is part of a consultative, collaborative sales close.

Primary stakeholders – We’ve talked about stakeholders, in general. Unfortunately, when the customer is in the tense moments of reviewing timelines and readiness factors, they sometimes lose focus on the most important stakeholders – their customers. In order for our customer to benefit from whatever we’re selling, they have to sell and/or save more. The foundation of the customer’s purchase motivation is in their desire to address their customer’s needs better. Understanding and emphasizing this is part of a consultative, collaborative sales close.

When decision-makers are having difficulty, lead the discussion to tangible things that they’ve already agreed to during the sales process. Turning the discussion to timeline, readiness and the impact on their primary stakeholders, is a key part of the consultative, collaborative close that helps customers move forward.

©2014 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities® LLC