We just returned from a trip to Cancun where, once again, I was struck with how easily, the people with something to sell, ask for your business.  In America and Canada, a huge percentage of salespeople seem almost embarrassed to ask – even when they’ve earned the right.  In Cancun, the salespeople haven’t earned the right, haven’t even shaken hands, and they’re already asking.  It’s the way that business has been done for centuries.  It’s honorable. It’s a way of life.

How about you?  Do you know at what point you’ve earned the right to close? If not, go back to Baseline Selling and read the chapter on Scoring.  You’ll see that you’ve earned the right once you have touched all the bases and left nothing to chance.  You rounded second base so your prospect needs what you have, has a compelling reason to buy it and a compelling reason to buy it from you.  You’ve established your SOB Quality so you have a strong relationship, have built trust, asked lots of questions that differentiated you from your competition and caused your prospect to think about issues they hadn’t previously thought about.  You rounded third base so your prospect is completely qualified to do business with you and you’re completely qualified to do business with your prospect.  And you’ve run home, presented a needs appropriate, budget appropriate, and time appropriate solution to the decision maker(s).

You’ve now earned the right to close.  Are you comfortable? You should be.  There’s not much that can go wrong at this point.  The only thing they can do that you can’t control is not make a decision.  But you have tools for that too. (Refer to the chapter on Scoring for the Inoffensive Close, Rule of Triple Elimination, Rule of Habits, and the Rule of Ratios.

Some salespeople come on too strong at this point.  Some don’t come on strong enough.  Some wait and let their prospect make the first move. Some make the first move themselves.  Some encourage their prospects to think it over.  Others ask for the business and then take put-offs.

Here’s what you must do.  If you’ve earned the right to close and you’re at the appropriate place on the timeline for doing business it is your obligation to close.  Closing is not asking for the business it’s getting the business.  Use the Inoffensive Close, be confident, smile, and hang in until it’s finally closed.  But only if you’ve earned the right to be there.  If you haven’t earned the right don’t even make an attempt to close.

That’s the big difference between what we do in America and what they do in Cancun and other tourist destinations.  We have the ability to differentiate ourselves by earning the right to close but how many of us do?

To learn more about earning the right and getting the business closed once you’ve earned the right, refer to or order your copy of Baseline Selling today.