How to Become a Born Closer

This episode is how to become a Born Closer.

Look, we've all heard that phrase, haven't we? Oh, she's a born salesperson or he's a born salesman.  We have this idea that, that the best salespeople were born that way. They came into the world with the gift of the gab. You know, they'd kissed the blarney stone. They had the blessing ,they're likable people, but it's not the truth.

It's not the truth. Good salespeople are are created. They learn their craft like anybody else. But you don't want to be  just a salesperson, right? A lot of people they spend forever selling but they never get any work cuz they don't close. What you want to be is a closer, a born closer.

The reason that  Salespeople don't get the work is they don't ask for the order. They didn't close the deal and they didn't follow up. So you want to be a closer and closers again, it's an acquired skill and you can acquire this skill. It's not hard. There are just some very simple steps you need to follow.

You might look around in your organization, there'll be some other salespeople who've been there a long, long time, and they seem to get a lot of work They do well, and one of the reasons most of the time is just they hang around in the sales process long enough. They just don't give up.

They don't actually have a repeatable sales process that they could train you in. They just exhibit a little little bit of grit and tenacity, and they're too dumb to to let go of something and eventually the customer calls uncle and, and buys. But you want to up your sales game. You want to hire great salespeople and have them be great closers.

But how do you attract great people into your organization.  Top salespeople, they're not on the market looking for a new job because they're making money where they are. So you've got to attract people who are enthusiastic, but you need to be able to show them, Hey, if you join my company, I, I can train you to be a closer and make a lot of money.

So you need to be able to have a documented, repeatable sales process that you can train them.  So I don't want salespeople who just beat around the bush and spend forever building rapport. I don't need more friends. If I'm a a potential customer, I need a solution to my problem. I need a new roof. I need a new ventilation system.

, I've got a problem with my plumbing or I need a new floor. So, so why do we make it so difficult? Sales is very, very simple, right? We try and complicated . The customer's got a problem. They need the problem fixing, and they want to get a price.

We don't like to think of ourselves as salespeople. We try not to ask for the order. We try not to appear pushy. And yet your customers going, I know you're really, I know you're trying to sell me something. Just give me the price. Why are you beating around the bush and asking all these stupid questions? Just, just give me an offer and I can tell you whether I like it or not

 Here's the sales process. Sales process is very, very simple. There are six basic steps, and we'll cover different elements of these steps in different podcasts.

Number one it's welcoming the prospect, greeting the prospect. It might be on the phone, it might be in person, it might be on Zoom.

It's a very warm, friendly, Hey, Steve. Good to meet you then don't spend forever beating around the bush. You're asking them where they went fishing this week, or you know what they're interested in, right?

Step two, qualify their needs using great questions. Get down to the meat of it. They're busy people. They want an answer to their problem.

Number three. Present your, your offer, your service, or your product, including the price. Be upfront with the price. Don't be frightened about saying that your top quality product commands a premium price.

Step four, make an offer right here. Here it is. Here's the offer and always, always give a written proposal. Because they might not buy just then, but at least they've got a piece of paper. It could be a napkin, could be an email, but, it says, this is what I'm gonna deliver,  and here's the price. We're ready to start on this date.

You just need to let me know yes or no. So always, always put together a written proposal. That's step four.

Step five is the close Ask for the order. Okay you like what I've put forward?  Can we get started? Can we shake on that? Is that a deal? Just ask. Ask for the order. Keep asking for the order.

Step six. If you don't get the order on that particular occasion, make sure that you follow up. Very, very simple. Number one, greet. Number two, qualify. Number three, present your offer. Number four give them a proposal under step five. Ask for the order.

Step six, follow up. Easy that's a fairly straightforward framework.

Now, what I'm gonna do is spend a little bit of time on step five, which is the close.

 You've managed to talk to the prospect, you've managed to find out what they're interested in. You've got their specifications, you've built a proposal, you've got the proposal on the table. There's a price associated with it. And, and, and you are ready. You are ready to to go ahead with the work or or deliver your product.

Here are the seven reasons closers fail.  they don't get the ink on the paper, they don't get the deal signed.

Number one, biggest, biggest reason they failed to close. Didn't ask for the order. It sounds crazy.  But a, a lot of us sometimes feel  uncomfortable with asking for that order. But you need to ask for the order very, very early on and ask often keep asking, is there any reason why we can't do this deal?

Are we ready to start? Can we get going? Ask several times during that conversation.

Secondly, we worry we're being salesy, we're exerting pressure on the prospect. It's gonna make them uncomfortable. No you are helping them through a decision making process. And sometimes decisions are a little thorny and uncomfortable. That's just the way of the world. So don't be shying away from due process

ask good questions. A good, a good question and a relevant question would be, is there anyone else we need to involve in this decision? And, and often sometimes they might say yes, and you say, okay how can we , involve them? How do we get them together so we can present to to everybody.

 If they say I can make the decision, no problem. And then you might ask, during the whole process, do you have all the information that you need to make a decision? And  they'll say yes or no.

If they say no. So what else do you need to understand? Right? And you go through, maybe it's a little bit more detail about how you deliver your service, et cetera, or what kind of guarantees you get. But you know, you get to the point, you have all the information you need. Do you want to see anything else?

And they'll say, no, I've got all the information. Okay, ask for the order again. Ask for the order. Can, can we get started?

Third reason, we are very unwilling to deal with emotions, particularly on price. So the prospect will say it's ridiculous. That price is, that price is way too high.

 You can, say  I'm with you. I understand. All all of my customers tell me that the price is too high, but I've got 500 happy customers who thought that while the price was right,  the delivery of the service the quality of the product, the quality of the aftercare, the way that I dealt them, made it worthwhile.

So I do understand but that's what the price is.

And you must have confidence around your price. Don't concede. Just assert the price. The price is the price.  It's not a negotiated figure.  It is what other people pay. It's what, what's what we charge and you make the price.

Price is just a figment of your imagination. You can make any price up that you want. Don't make the mistake of looking at what all your competitors are doing -they all be, they all put their bids in at, at, at around 23%. We are not gonna win unless we're 23% or 22%. Charge 30%, 35, 40%, make up the price and then have confidence to put that price forward.

If you are the best product, the best service, and you're gonna do your utmost to make , that experience the greatest for that customer, then you can charge what you want. Put that price out there. Don't take cheap work. Put a price there that, that speaks to your capability and commitment.

Number four, lack of belief.

 There are two elements to belief. First of all, does your prospective customer believe that the product or the service will do the job?  you're gonna have to uncover that, you're gonna have to probe  around that.  If they believe that you can do it they're gonna go with you.

But you have to demonstrate confidence.

So the second part of belief is this. It's what you believe as the salesperson.

Only to the degree you are sold can you sell.

 If you believe implicitly that you're gonna knock this project out of the park, that the installation is going to be fantastic, the service is gonna be exemplary, they're gonna be delighted customers, and they should not go anywhere else for this risky project or to make sure that this need is fulfilled.

You will exert that. It will osmose out of your pores. It will create an aura of confidence, of serenity.

When you're in front of the prospect, if you're thinking, oh, you know, we've had a few problems with this type of work. I dunno whether we can deal with it, we've priced it too low, so I'm not gonna have good people on the project. It may be a bit squeaky. You communicate that subliminally to the prospect.

 If you don't have a rock solid belief that this is the right thing for your prospect, the prospect is gonna suss it out.

 Before you start making your sales calls, before you start going in front of people there's a discipline and a process for building belief.

Belief is a mental construct.  look at all the projects that you've done, talk to your people and ask them to share with you the successes that they've had. Talk to your customers and think about the comments they made about how delighted they were. And you, you've got little videos maybe that you look at on your iPhone and and where, where your customers saying, oh, thanks Mick.

You saved us on that project. I'm glad that we went with you.

You gotta feed your belief system so it becomes a weapon. So that's number four. You must have belief. If you have lack of belief or your prospect doesn't believe in your product or service, you're not gonna make the sale.

Number five, we try to be reasonable.

We're reasonable people. So the prospect might say I need a bit more time to think about this. Well, seems reasonable, right?  Not, not an unreasonable request, but they've got all of the information, you've made, your presentation, the proposals out there. , they don't need any more information.

So  you shouldn't be reasonable. You should have an expectation of, look, you've got a problem. You told me this is what it was. We need to execute against this. We need to get started. We need to get planning. If you wanna be successful, this is how it's gonna get done. And you know, we're not gonna be reasonable when other people say we can't get the materials or other trades get in the way.

No, we are gonna drive this through. We are very unreasonable. To get results, you have to be unreasonable. You have to be very, very direct. So, you know, waiting what, what, what's gonna change in the next 24, 48 hours?

It's not gonna change. So again, ask again, ask for the order, right?

Then number six, we don't uncover the real objection. So ask the question. Is there, is there any reason you can't do this deal or you don't want to do this deal. And keep on digging until they really tell you what their deepest concern is.

 Then when you address that concern, you gotta really a good chance of closing it.

Look,  there's only a couple of reasons that you're not gonna get the order.  Number one, they're not the decision maker. And number two they don't believe in your product or service.

 So you, you asked them early on when we said qualification questions, right?  is there anybody else we need to get involved in the decision? And they say no. And so you can say to them, look, there are generally only two reasons why people don't buy this product or service.

Number one because you're not the decision maker. I know you are cuz you told me you were and you smile.

Or number two, you, they don't believe that it's gonna deliver the value or solve the problem. So which one, which one is it.  If they're not the decision maker, your job as a salesperson, Is to sell to the decision maker.

So you have to qualify early on, have I got a live decision maker in front of me? If I haven't, I've got to find a way to get to the decision maker and get them involved in this process. Cuz if you don't have a decision maker, right, and you haven't talked to them about the money, then you're not in sales and you can't close.

Get the real, get the real objections.

Number seven is they didn follow up.  You might not get the deal on the first, on the first call. Here are some statistics.

2% of sales are made on the first contact.

3% are made on the second.

5% are made on the third,

10% made on the fourth,

and 80% of sales are made on the fifth to the 12th. Call or conversation.

The average salesperson follows up a couple of times. So that's, add up to 5% of deals are closed on those two interactions.

So the average salesperson is missing out on 95% of the deals. So make sure that you follow up.

So once again, let me list those, those reasons around the close and why people fail.

Number one, didn't ask for the order.

Number two. They feel they're salesy and will exert pressure, so don't ask good questions.

Number three, unwilling to deal with emotions, particularly price.

Number four, lack of belief.

Number five, trying to be reasonable.

Number six, don't uncover real objections.

Number seven. Didn't follow up.

If you do those seven things positively, you'll close much more deals and you will evolve from a salesperson to a sales closer.

Hope you enjoyed this week's show.