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How CHOICE can make CLOSING Easier

Guest articles > How CHOICE can make CLOSING Easier

by: Luke McLeod

The number one response I get when I ask CEO’s/MD’s/Sales Directors what they would like their sales team to do more of, is….. CLOSE. Close more deals. Getting the pen to paper, that final agreement of “Yes, I want to do business with you”.

I’m a big believer that the way to improve your team’s closing is not working on the closing so much, but on their discovery/qualification. In other words, if you can get your team to ask better questions, that give you better information to compile a better response. You will have a BETTER Closing rate. No question about it.

However let’s leave that for another post. I do want to look at the pointy end of the sale process today. That final agreement that is the pay-off from all of that hard work. The Close. For now, let’s assume that you have done a wonderful job of qualifying your prospects/clients needs and have compiled a response that will determine whether you get the business with them. You feel you’ve put together a solution that ticks all of their boxes and are ready to go back in and present this solution you have worked exhaustingly to put together for them.

Your palms are sweaty, you do a last minute flick through the proposal and say to yourself “Gee I hope they like it…” and step into the boardroom.

Now let’s stop things here for a moment and let me ask you a question.

What happens if they don’t like it? You say you can make the required needed changes and come back to them again?? But let’s be frank here, your likely hood of now attaining the deal has diminished dramatically.

Here’s a very simple, yet extremely effective solution that eliminates that possibility of the “No. Is not quite right”, response.

CHOICE. Give them a Choice to Choose from two solutions. You see, a simple thing happens when you give someone a choice… they choose. Where if you ask for an actual approval or agreement on one solution you have a 50% chance they can say “No”. To me, that’s not very good odds, so why don’t we just eliminate the possibility of them saying “No” all together, and you can do this by giving them a choice.

Let’s look at a possible live scenario of both options.

Once you have presented the solution that only has only option, generally you would say something along the lines of “So, are you happy with this solution?”

What are the possible responses to this question? Either a “Yes” or “No” (maybe an elobrated version, but the end result will be either of the two).

Say you have 2 options for them to choose from now. That vital question changes dramatically to:

“Which do you feel is a more suitable solution. A or B?”

To this question, you cannot receive a “Yes” or “No” response. You are giving them a choice to choose from 2 options, eliminating the possibility of a “No” response and guaranteeing a “Yes” response either way. “Yes, option A looks like a better fit” or “Yes, option B looks like a better fit”.

If they say neither, than shame on you for not being able to capture what their needs are and create TWO possible solutions.

Giving them a choice also makes it easier for them to say “Yes”. Too often deal’s are lost simply because you haven’t made it easy enough for them to decide they want to do business with you.

It’s your responsibility to make sure you make it as easy as possible for them to say “Yes”.

I often use this strategy in everyday life. For example, ever gone to the video store and wandered aimlessly back and forth through the aisles asking your partner “What about an action movie?” which the usual response is “Nah, not in the mood” and you reply “Well what are you in the mood for?”, they answer “No sure, what about you?” and the banter continues.

Now say you give your partner an alternative choice question. Such as, “What would you prefer to watch, an action movie or comedy?” and see what response you get. More often than not you will get an agreement on one or the other choice’s you gave. But why is this so? Well our brains are actually wired that when we are confronted with two options we want to choose one of them, to choose neither we actively have to override our brain to give that response.

So my final question is, “what would you prefer, to give the alternative close a go and increase your close rate or stay the same and keep closing the same amount you currently are?”. The choice is yours…

Luke McLeod writes topshelfsales.wordpress.com, a blog dedicated to offering the very best in 'Top Shelf' advice. The blog has been in operation for close a year now and is getting some good attention.

Contributor: Luke McLeod

Published here on: 21-Nov-11

Classification: Sales

Website: topshelfsales.wordpress.com