I was asked recently, “Where do you cover “closing” in The Five Abilities™ methodology? The whole reason for selling is to close sales, so shouldn’t there be a ‘CloseABILITY’ section?” My answer? Great sales people rarely close because when selling is done well, the customer just knows when buying is the best next step. In my 32+ years of selling I can count the number of times I’ve had to do a hard close and all of them were to help the customer make their own deadline.
The hard close is something we see often in transactional or retail settings where getting the customer to buy before they walk out the door is a necessity because you may never see them again. There is no relationship development in most retail settings and, other than with high-end luxury goods, it’s rare that customers buy from the same retail sales person again. So asking for the order, handling objections, asking for the order again and then waiting in silence to turn up the pressure, are absolutely necessary skills for transactional sales people.
Conversely, relying on the hard close is a guaranteed way of failing in the world of B2B, relationship oriented selling. The big ticket, relationship nature of B2B selling, along with the number of people involved, means decisions cannot be made in a day and a hard close means hard closed doors the next time we knock.
In reality, great B2B sales people are always closing but because their motivation is to help, customers do not recognize it as closing or even selling. In B2B relationships where repeat business is critical, closing is about constantly moving the decision process forward with helpful information and consistently supporting decisions that have been made. In this environment closing takes many different forms.
- Incredibly successful sales people recognize the nervous decision maker and will proactively share information to strengthen the buyer’s resolve regarding the VIABILITY of a product or service. That’s closing.
- Incredibly successful sales people will be the first to tell customers when we have made a mistake which earns us CREDABILITY and RELIABILITY. That’s closing.
- Incredibly successful sales people will know the purchasing process as well as the decision maker and will show CAPABILITY by helping them through the steps. That’s closing.
- Incredibly successful sales people will know the customer’s internal politics as well as decision makers and will help guide them to decisions that result in personal wins. That’s closing.
- Incredibly successful sales people will be there to help the decision maker address objections by detractors, even after the sale is transacted. That’s closing.
Great sales people instinctively recognize things that keep the sales process from moving forward. With this knowledge they proactively execute to help themselves and their decision making customers, over the hurdles. Such hurdles can take the shape of conflicting opinions, fears and uncertainty, so each act of getting over a hurdle is, by itself, a close. Yes, this is like the popular carnival game Whack-A-Mole, and while we should always avoid violence with customers, there are a lot of similarities between selling and whacking mechanical moles.
How do sales people become instinctive and proactive? Business and sales experience are equally important because we need to be increasingly consultative. Planning without over analyzing is also a key trait of great sales people. Sometimes the planning is formal, which typically happens in very large companies, but it is often the small adjustments with teams and customers that are most meaningful. The latter is much more applicable with today’s speed of business.
Having a methodology such as The Five Abilities™, which guides people to quickly focus on areas they aren’t making necessary progress is helpful in identifying where the objections and detractors are going to be. The instinctive behavior of great sales people becomes a thoughtful, helpful response versus a knee-jerk reaction.
The Five Abilities™ methodology facilitates immediate and instinctive focus on the helpful closes that need to be done today and in the future, in the areas of VISABILITY, CREDABILITY, VIABILITY, CAPABILITY and RELIABILITY.
