Always be closing (ABC), myth or reality?
Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at 3:00AM
Glengarry Glenn Ross, New Line Cinema, 1992“A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Closing. Always be closing, always be closing.” - Blake (Glengarry Glen Ross)
Right now many sales trainers, managers and sales people are back to the basics: lets go out and sell, close the deals (no Bull***t), and double the income. I see many seminars with agendas like “sell more to more!”
This approach may result in a seller that tries to close the opportunity too early in the buying process – before the customer has a buying vision and a value of the solution. From a buyer perspective (I am the CEO of our company) I hate this type of sales approach!
My belief (supported by Keith Eades) is that good salesmen don’t have to close. The customer is so convinced that they will benefit from the solution that they volunteer to buy it. Why? They see a solution, not a price tag!
It’s the process of getting to that point that will make the difference, not how you close the deal. That is truly back to basics selling! Don’t close before the buyer is willing to buy!
One salesman asked me the other day a very practical question: How do I avoid the “proposal trap”? I present a proposal, the customer likes it, but needs time to think it over. I think that is a familiar situation to many of us.
I asked him how he could transfer the ownership of the proposal to the client(have the customer write their own proposal)? And he came up with a way to present a draft summary to the client, ask for the changes the client wanted to make, and ask the client if he/she were willing to take a “go” decision if the changes were accepted. He tried this approach for a week and came back with a big smile. It worked well, and added “after the customer made the changes and agreed to buy, I could take the changes and start a negotiation with the client. At last I’m in control!”
Conclusion.
The buyer wants to buy and the seller wants to sell. No news here. But the way the salesmen approaches the client and the buying decision makes all the difference. No one wants to be “sold” but everyone loves to buy!
This blog was originally uploaded to LinkedIn by Jens Edgren on the Friends of Solution Selling & Sales Makeover group page.







The Expert Buyer
The “expert buyer“ has changed the way sales people have to sell. The expert buyer is knowledgeable, informed, and has a buying vision. They have no interest in a sales person “selling them”, but it doesn’t mean they don’t want the seller to add value.
The three things sellers must do to add value and adapt to the expert buyer include:
1. Alignment- “Do the right things, at the right time, with the right people” Sellers have to quickly identify where the expert buyer is in their buying process by asking the right questions, at the right time, to the right person.
2. Targeted Product Knowledge- Once the expert buyer has put their buying vision on the table and communicated the problem they are trying to solve, don’t hesitate to ask the question, “how much knowledge do you have about our products or services?” Sharing random product knowledge has no value to the expert buyer and it will turn them off. Sharing the right product knowledge could be the difference in making the sale or losing it forever.
3.Expand the buyers vision- Find opportunities or gaps in the buyer’s vision based on your knowledge. Use your situational expertise to help fill those gaps with the capabilities of your products and services.
If sellers can be in alignment, communicate targeted product knowledge, and expand the buyer’s vision, ultimately they will close more deals in 2012.
Enable and Inspire!
This blog was originally published on John Eades’s personal blog