Obtaining Commitment
For most authors and sales training experts this is the most important aspect of the call, our research shows that the Investigating stage of the call is the most critical to the success of a sales success in larger sales.
Types of Closes
1. Assumptive Close
2. Alternative Close
3. Standing-room only Close
4. Last-chance Close
5. Order-blank Close
What is a close?
A behavior used by the seller which implies or invites a commitment, so that the buyer’s next statement accepts or denies commitment. A close is anything that puts customer in a position involving some kind of commitment.
What does the research show about using closing techniques in larger sales?
“I see closing techniques as both ineffective and dangerous. I’ve evidence that they lose much more business than they gain.”
Problems with closing techniques in larger sales
- Closing is a method of putting pressure on a customer and the bigger the decision the more negative people react to pressure.
- By forcing the customer into a decision, closing techniques speed the sales transaction. (In most major-account sales forces the most common complaint is that you can’t get enough time with the right people) In larger sales a shorter transaction time has few advantages and many penalties.
- Closing techniques may increase the chances of making a sale with low-priced products. With expensive products or services, they reduce the chances of making a sale.
- Research shows that the more sophisticated buyers react negatively to the use of a closing.
Buyer Comment: “It’s not closing itself that I object to, it’s the arrogant assumption that I’m stupid enough to be manipulated into buying through the use of tricks. Whenever a standard closing technique is used on me, it reduces the respect between us-it destroys the professional business relationship.”
Obtaining the Right Commitment
Set the right objectives: have an understanding of what level of commitment the customer will need to make in order for the call to be a success.
- Just getting an agreement to a future meeting isn’t an adequate measure of whether of not a sales call was a success or not.
Defining Closing Success in Larger Sales
1. Orders: you get the sales, PO, check etc.,
2. Advances: where an event takes place, either in the call or after it, that moves the sale forward toward a decision. (Successful closing in the major sales starts by knowing what Advance you can realistically obtain from the call.)
3. Continuations: where the sale will continue but where no specific action has been agreed upon to move it forward. ( I can no longer accept positive strokes and compliments as reliable signs of call success. Too often I have seen customers make these positive noises at the end of the call as a polite way to get rid of an unwanted seller. In our studies we wanted closing success to be measured by actions, not by nice noises.)
- Advances=Success
- Continuations=Unsuccessful
4. No-Sales: where customer actively refuses a commitment.
“People who consistently aim for Advances rather than Continuations are often described by their managers as ‘good closers.’ In fact, their success comes from how they set call objectives rather than how they closes.”
Setting Call Objectives: Teach your people the difference between Continuations and Advances and help them become dissatisfied with setting call objectives that result only in Continuation.
- In your call planning, always include objectives that result in specific action from the customer.
Four Successful Actions
1. Giving attention to Investigating and Demonstrating Capability: Successful salespeople give their primary attention to the Investigating and Demonstrating Capability stages.
- Less successful salespeople rush through the Investigating stage failing to do an effective job of uncovering, understanding and developing the needs of the customer.
- You will only obtain commitment from the customer in a major sale if he clearly perceives a need for what you offer.
- The most successful salespeople in major sales do an outstanding job of building needs during the Investigating stage.
2. Check that key concerns are covered. We found that sellers who were most effective in obtaining commitment from their customers would take the initiative to ask the buyer whether there were any further points or concerns that needed to be addressed.
2. Summarizing the Benefits: successful salespeople pull the threads together by summarizing key points of the discussion before moving to a commitment.
3. Proposing a Commitment: Successful seller don’t ask, they tell, the most natural, and most effective, way to bring a call to a successful conclusion is to suggest an appropriate nest step to the customer.
Two Characteristics of commitment proposals by successful salespeople
Two Characteristics of commitment proposals by successful salespeople
1. The commitment advances the sale. As a result of the commitment, the sale will move forward in some way.
2. The commitment proposed is the highest realistic commitment that customer is able to give. Successful sellers never push the customer beyond available limits.
Swedish Consultant Hans Stennek: “I’ve never been a believer in closing because my objective is not to close the sale but to open a relationship”
Customer Needs in the Major Sale
Strongest influence over success in larger sales in tied to success in Investigating.
Implied Needs: Statements by the customer of problems, difficulties and dissatisfactions.
Explicit Needs: Specific customer statements of wants or desires
- In larger sales implied needs don’t predict success but explicit needs do.
- Successful questioning in the larger sales depends on how Implied Needs are developed—how they are converted by questions into Explicit Needs.
- Explicit Needs are the buying signals that predict success in larger sales.
The very successful sellers put a strong emphasis on needs development as the most important selling skill.The purpose of questioning in the larger sale is to uncover the Implied Needs and to develop them into Explicit Needs.
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