[E96] Closing Week: Do you really need a ‘Closing’ strategy?

Week 20 and it’s finally time to talk about Sales ‘Closing’ strategies.

But before I share my closing advice, I must first address my feelings and experiences around what most salespeople are taught about how to close deals.

That final part of the sales process is where the money is made. But is slick, salesy, persuading (and verging on manipulative) closing lines the best way to go?

Episode 96 – Transcript

Hey there, welcome to the sales experience podcast. So glad that you’re here. My name again is Jason Cutter. This is episode 96 – this is week 20 of the show and I am going to talk about closing topics. So this is one thing that I’ve been requested a bunch. Well I’m putting these shows together as I’m heading towards a hundred episodes people have asked, and in my regular consulting world where I’m dealing with sales reps, everyone’s asking about closing strategies, closing techniques. There’s literally maybe thousands of books out there. I know there’s tons of podcasts, audio websites, YouTube videos, everything focused on how to get you to close.

What kind of closing lines should you use? I mean, I have a book on my shelf from researching for some project that I’m working on that has, it’s like 300 and something closing techniques for timeshare, which they don’t call it time shooting, where they call it vacation ownership.

It’s literally hundreds of pages of closing techniques, closing lines, strategies, persuasion slash maybe manipulation and things to do for that. Yeah. This week is all about closing topics. For this episode, what I wanted to cover was what is it that you need to do and do you really need a closing strategy? Is that something that’s important to you? Do you need one? And here’s my stance on it.

And sometimes this can be controversial with salespeople, especially hardcore old school salespeople and sales managers who want to have all these closing techniques and strategies and lines they use and things. They come at people, you know, if I can help you find a way to do this, is this something you’re going to buy today? You know, those kinds of lines I think are important and you can work into the conversation, but they shouldn’t be the main focus.

Like that’s the kind of stuff that it could work, but there’s a large percentage of the population it won’t work on and they’ll feel like they’re being sold to instead of being allowed to buy. And that’s the whole point of what I wanted to cover today. Is that right? If it’s done right when you approach sales correctly and you’re building the value, doing everything.

Like if you were to listen to the previous 95 episodes and where I’ve been going on this journey with the show and talking about sales and the sales experience, if you’re building that sales experience correctly from rapport all the way through this point, right where you need the clothes, air quotes, if you could see me clothes and you need a strategy for that, right? If you’ve done everything right to that point in the conversation, there is no clothes, there is no need to really ask for the business.

They should be asking you to purchase. They should be asking, how do I buy this? This sounds great. What you’ve presented to me solves the problem that I have that I either no, that I had when I came to you or you came to meet or it solves a problem I didn’t know I have. But thanks to your questions, thanks to your discovery in your poking and prodding and trying to dig deep. You uncovered this problem I didn’t know I have and here we are and I’d you to solve it, or your product or service is helping me achieve a goal that I’ve got that I had that I knew about or maybe I didn’t even know about.

And here we are. And so when done right, when your sales presentation, when your conversations are done correctly, whether it’s a one call close or a three months sales cycle, doesn’t matter when it’s done right, they should be coming to you asking to buy more than you’re needing to do closing techniques.

Now for the rest of the episodes this week, I have it planned out. I know I’m going to talk about, I’m talking about different closes, which might seem counter intuitive to what I just said, hypocritical to the point I’m making, which is you don’t need a closing strategy. However, there are some things that you could do and should do in order to get to where you want to go more effectively in sales. So make sure to check out those episodes throughout this week.

But in general, my main philosophy is if you’re having to twist arms, if you’re having to manipulate, if you’re having to use hardcore closing tactics, then what you’re going to produce is a sale that’s questionable, in my opinion, a sale that’s built on sandy ground, right on shaky foundation that could end up in a cancellation, a complaint, an issue after the fact. It’ll probably result in some buyer’s remorse.

Will they wake up at two in the morning and regret or worry about what they bought from you because you pushed them too hard with your closing strategies? Ideally, you want somebody who sees the value in what you’re offering, thanks to your professionalism and yes, your techniques throughout the whole process are, I’m not saying you shouldn’t have any techniques and you shouldn’t be trying to move towards the sale. I’m just saying that be careful with needing or requiring sales closes.

If you’re listening to this and you’re new to sales, a lot of times new salespeople are so worried about what they’re going to say, how they’re going to close, what techniques should I use? How do I do this? How do I do that? What do I say? How do I push them into this? Focus on the fundamentals. Focus on everything from rapport and empathy, trust, hope, urgency, all of those things I covered early on in the show.

Focused on your personality and the other person’s personality and their behavior types and how do you give them what they need when you meet them, where they’re at, instead of trying to pull somebody to where you’re at, you go to where they’re at and meet their needs, solve their problems, help them get to a goal that they have. When you do that, your prospects, we’ll be wanting what you have, asking you for it, and then also thanking you.

You know you’ve done the sales process, right, and I know I’ve covered this in the past. You know you’ve done it right. When your prospects turn into customers and they’re thanking you for what you did right, they’re thanking you for giving them the opportunity to buy in the way that they wanted to buy. When you do that correctly, it’s generally not with hardcore sales techniques.

It’s not with hardcore closes. It’s not with pushing somebody into it. It’s giving them the space. You too. Bye and that’s super important. You want to make sure you focus on that, and again, I’m going to say it because I’m sure I’m going to get some comments or some feedback and people complaining, especially hardcore salespeople, there are closes that have a time and a place and that are effective and it’s good for probing test closes.

Like I said, if I can help you with this, is this something you’d like to do today? You know, those kinds of test closes are important but not always necessary and shouldn’t be the foundation of what you’re doing at the abandoning everything else in an actual conversation that could lead to the sale where they’re excited to buy. I know this might not have been the episode you thought you were going to get regarding closing and strategies, but I think there’s an important to set this foundation, especially on top of everything else I’ve been covering for 90 something episodes is that it’s all about the sales experience in the sales process and when done right, it’s so smooth and effortless.

I just want to make that point known because this comes up so much and that’s it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate everyone who has gone through this journey. Make sure to subscribe to the show, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify. It’s also on Soundcloud, Google play music, CutterConsultingGroup.com website. You can go on there, you can find me on LinkedIn. If you’re in sales, sales management, anything like that, please send me a message. Find me on LinkedIn or the CutterConsultingGroup.com website. Hit me up and I’d love to talk sales. I enjoy talking about sales, sales strategies, anything I can do to help. Let’s jump on a call. Let’s talk, not for me to try to sell you anything, but just see how I can help give you some value, help you or your team out with sales. And that’s it.

And again, always remember that everything in life is sales, right? And people remember the experience you gave them.