By Michael W. McLaughlin
The last time I was in the market for a new car, I was reminded why the experience is so notoriously unpleasant.
Before setting foot in a showroom, I looked up information about the cars I was considering. All that remained was to narrow down my choices with test drives and get the answers to all my questions.
The showroom salesperson, Brian, was eager for me to take a test drive. “Here are the keys, so let’s go.” As we drove off, Brian launched into a monologue (punctuated with instructions on which way to go) on every detail about the model. I didn’t retain any of it.
After the test drive, Brian herded me into a cramped cubicle. In the game of poker, they say that if you look around the table and can’t spot the mark—it’s you. Well, it was clear that I was the mark. Brian moved in for the “close.”
Our conversation went something like this:
Me: Do you have the car in metallic blue?
Brian: Is that the color you want?
Me: I’m not sure. Is the model of the car I drove available?
Brian: When would you like to have the car?
Me: I haven’t decided. Can we talk about the sticker price?
Brian: Sure. What price will get you drive that car off the lot today?
Me: I don’t know that either. Uh, maybe we should talk later.
Brian was employing a well-known sales closing technique: get small commitments from a buyer, and then slowly reel the person in. What Brian didn’t get was that I hadn’t yet seen myself owning that car, so efforts to close the sale failed. His attempts to close got in the way of making the sale.
Over the years, salespeople, including consultants, have placed too much emphasis on closing. Consultant Doug Davidoff tells of one sales trainer who says that “if a salesperson hasn’t asked for the sale at least eight times (I repeat, at least eight times), the salesperson has no right to expect a sale.”
How would you like to be that client?
Of course, you’ll rarely get a sale unless you ask for it. But here are five points to consider before you do that.
1. The harder you push, the easier it is for the client to just say no.
The fastest way to lose a sale is to push too hard, too fast. When you lose a sale, it’s unlikely that the client will say outright that it’s because you were too pushy. So you must judge carefully how much is too much.
In one case, a consulting firm lost a project because of a relentless focus on closing the deal. Here’s what happened at a critical time in the sales process:
Consultant 1: The clients read the proposal last week, and they’re planning to make a decision early next week.
Consultant 2: That’s great. We need to be sure they have everything they need to make a decision in our favor.
Consultant 1: I confirmed that the decision maker had everything she needed when we met earlier today. In a couple of hours, she’s headed out for a long weekend.
Consultant 2: In that case, I better get over there right away and talk to her once more before she leaves. We can’t leave anything to chance.
The consultant cornered the client decision maker before she left for the day and went over the same ground again. The consultants never received another return phone call from her. And another consulting firm won the work.
The aggressive consultant failed to understand that repeated client contact doesn’t necessarily improve the probability of a sale. The most successful sellers know when to back off and let the client work through a decision process.
Clients often behave in a predictable way when faced with an overly aggressive salesperson—they seek an alternative.
2. Selling doesn’t end with the sale.
Once you’ve purchased a car, the salesperson hands you the keys and says “See you when you come back for your first service appointment.” But unless you buy another car, you’ll have limited contact with that salesperson.
The “close” of a consulting sale is more likely to end with you saying, “See you next week and we’ll start our work.” The “close” isn’t an ending, but a starting point. You don’t create the client’s expected outcome until after the sale.
For the client, the sale isn’t closed until the expected outcome is achieved. The initial “close” is a small step in the overall sales process, which extends through the duration of the project.
3. The close is not the turning point that creates a win.
In services sales, the real turning point occurs when a potential buyer decides to become a client.
The standard sales closing techniques of handling objections and asking for the order rarely create turning points. In services sales, the turning point doesn’t occur during the close process, but long before. That turning point results from the high value activities you complete during the sales process.
For example, a turning point can occur when you demonstrate that the needs of the client outweigh your need to make a sale. One consultant cemented a long term relationship with a client by recommending that the client use a competing consulting firm for a project.
From that point on, the client knew the consultant would put the client’s interests at the top of the list, and continued to award new projects to the unselfish consultant.
The hard work of landing a new client begins and ends with turning points. Those pivotal decisions occur throughout the sales cycle, not just when you sign the deal.
4. Clients will close the sale for you— if you let them.
The simplest—and most natural—approach to selling services is to let the client close the sale for you. Forcing action on a sale before the client is ready to buy risks distracting attention from the most important sales activity: helping the client embrace a proposed outcome.
In most services sales, the client will tell you when it’s time to close. Learn to recognize the two-step progression from understanding to ownership. A client begins by working to understand what you’re proposing to do. Some mistake that understanding for acceptance of the plan, but that’s rarely correct.
Before you ask for the sale, the client must make the leap from an understanding of the solution to ownership of the approach and the outcome. If you ask for the sale before a client has made that leap, you risk losing the sale.
5. The “successful close” never happens.
When it comes to professional services, the traditional advice for closing sales comes up short. Yes, you must answer objections, offer a competitive price, convey how your services will deliver the desired outcome, and ask for the sale. But that’s not nearly enough.
You must work alongside clients, at their pace, to create a shared vision and ownership of results. Selling is not about creating an artificial milestone called the close, but a natural process that results in mutual agreement about what’s best for the client.
As consultant and author Jill Konrath says in her article, Why I Hate Closing Techniques, “The very best salespeople don’t employ any special closing techniques at all.”
Some sales experts imply that unless we’re always working toward the close, we’re just one step away from professional meltdown. With most clients, though, you’ll have far more success if you let them buy from you, instead of trying to sell them something.
That calls for a whole different mindset about what “closing” means.
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