Closing the Sale

If you ask most salespeople what their biggest challenge is in the area of closing, most will provide answers like:

• price
• timing
• not the decision maker
• lack of interest
• fear of rejection
• not a priority
• competition
• not a need
• put off
• objections

The interesting thing about this list is that most of the topics have little, if anything to do with closing. As a matter of fact, if a salesperson is effectively executing the process of selling, all of these topics are dealt with long before a salesperson determines that an opportunity is even closeable.

If you ask your salespeople what their biggest challenges are relative to closing and you get a list similar to my list above, you will have to acknowledge that the following statements about them may be accurate:

• not prepared
• not properly trained
• don’t execute an effective process
• don’t practice
• no control
• lots of wasted time
• many lost opportunities
• sales management is ineffective at coaching, development and accountability
• wrong people for the position

So what should you do? Evaluate the sales organization to learn the real reasons for your sales organization’s performance, read my November 15 Blog to get a sense for what you’ll discover, read Baseline Selling to get a better sense for what they should be doing out in the field and, most importantly, stop doing whatever you’re doing right now and commit to changing it. The results don’t change unless you change.

(c) Copyright 2006 Objective Management Group, Inc.