The BIGGEST Sales Mistake EVER Made… oh, and what to do about it

Want to know where most sales people fail?  They fail to do the one thing that has to be done.  No matter what you sell, no matter how you sell (on-line over a counter or in meeting) this single biggest mistake will cost you every time.

Failing to close, failing to ask for the sale, showing signs of a lack of confidence at this critical juncture will blow away all of your great work.  We’ve all been there – we’ve all had someone selling to us and it was going fine, then something happened – maybe they never asked for the sale, maybe they did but they looked away at a critical time – you may not even know what they did or did not do – but you lost confidence – you lost trust in what they had told you, what their product or service could do.

So that’s it ‘failing to close properly’ it is the NUMBER 1 biggest mistake made in sales; whether it’s failing completely to ask fro the sale or not showing enough confidence when you do – it’s the same thing: you failed to ask for the sale.

All those old cliché’s become true at this point;  the one with the most confidence gets the sale, the first person to speak after asking that closing question loses – they all become true.  So let’s tick them off one at a time and give you the tools to close the sale:

#1: Ask For The Sale. If you don’t ask you don’t get.  One of the best sales people I know works for a small stationary company – and she always gets the sale – she has no regard for rejection she just simple does the one thing most of her colleagues fail at.  She asks for the sale.  Now don’t get me wrong – she could not change jobs at start selling million pound IT systems tomorrow – but she could probably do it better than most because she always asks for the sale.  Get over your fear of rejection – it’s not real.  If you don’t ask you’ll not get your future customers position; they may answer with a concern that you have missed – which gives you a chance to go back to the  ‘question stage’ of your selling – by agreeing with their objection and digging deeper to close it down.  How can you do that if you don’t ask the magic question?  So don’t dilly dally around the question either by asking “so, what do you think?”  This is not asking for the sale it is asking them to at best be polite and at worse lie!  Ask the question, close the sale.  Keep it simple, and direct, like: “Peter can I show you the next steps we now need to complete to deliver this service?”

#2: Shut Up.  Yep you heard me right.  Stop the verbal diarrhea.  Ask the question and… shut up.  Let them answer the question.  Don’t give them an excuse to avoid the answer.  So many times I heard something along the lines of “so, Peter can I show you the next steps we need to complete now to invest in this service” – only for a 5 second gap followed by “blurb blurb blurb” – maybe it was “if that’s ok” or “unless there is anything you want me to go back over” etc etc.  Chance of getting the sale – just gone out of the window.  I’ve even seen a prospect sitting there with their cheque book open asking for the amount to fill in and the sales person is still too bust saying they need to go back and tell him more about the ‘features in Week 6 of the user experience.’  So ask the magic question and shut up.  Let them answer – find out what they are thinking, deal with the objection if need be and close the sale.

#3: Confidence. This is all about a little feeling in the back of your head.  Something tells you it’s is not quite right.  So lets put this to bed.  If you do not have confidence in what you are selling and what you are saying – your future customer will pick up on this, probably without even knowing how they did or why they did.  They just will somewhere in the back of their mind that they are not ‘comfortable’ or even get a  ‘gut feeling’ which will shoot you down.  You need to have confidence – I’m not talking about arrogance nor being an over confident know it all.  I’m talking about people trusting you and what you have to say ‘because’ you give them confidence.  This is where the one with the most confidence wins and your job is to be confident and inspire confidence.  Let me give you some simplistic looking but all too real examples of what I mean:

·        You deliver the magic question perfectly, but look down as you do it or fidget a little, or just touch your ear.  These are the traits the human mind picks up on and acts upon

·        You are just too nervous; maybe you come across as trying to hard. 

·        You sound / come across as unclear on how to progress

·        You can’t find the right paperwork to proceed or drop all your papers

These are simple to see and will stop future customers from selecting you. Put them right and you remove many of the gut feel and little niggles in the back of the head that go against you.  Be confident – present your solution to their need in the confidence that you have asked the right questions to get to the right answers.  Be confident when you ask for the sale – stop your leg from ‘jigging’ up and down and relax, mentally take that step back and match your breathing to your future customer.  Practise delivering your magic question, your closing question, in front of a mirror, record yourself and listen to the audio – listen to how you perceive yourself – ask colleagues or for feed back – let them listen to the audio / watch your delivery.  If you need to produce order papers / further paperwork with the your closing question – practise doing this at the same time – know where the papers are in the pack and make it as smooth as possible.  It’s a bit like stalking wild animals – one sudden movement / noise… and they’re off!  Joking aside practice you’re closing.

And that’s it the biggest mistake sales people make time and time again is not asking for the sale – and when they do – not following the simple rules of  being confident and letting your prospect answer.

Regards,

Peter