If You’re Closing, You’re Losing: The Counterintuitive Truth About Closing More Sales

One of the biggest misconceptions about having great sales results is that you need to master the close. The irony about closing is that if your process ends with you actively asking for the sale, you are actually unlikely to get good results.

And yet, one of the most common questions I get asked in my work as a coach is, “What is the most effective way to close a sale?”.

My answer to this question is simple: If you’ve handled the entire sales process well, you won’t have to ask your prospect to buy. Instead, at the end of your sales conversation, they will be asking YOU how to move forward.

When I talk to a prospective coaching client for example, I know that I’ve done a great job leading our conversation when at the end of the call, I ask them if there’s anything else I can do for them and say respond with, “Yes, I would love to know how I can work further with you.”

In other words, if your sales conversation has left your prospect with no doubt that you can solve their problem or relieve their pain point with your product or service, the close will happen naturally.

The rare exception to this rule is the individual who believes that you as the sales professional need to explicitly ask them for the sale. In the case of this type of client, or any sales conversation that doesn’t naturally culminate in your prospect asking for the next steps, here’s the approach I like to use.

The Assumptive Summary Close:

1. Keep track of each of your prospects' concerns or questions throughout the sales conversation.

When people are in the process of shopping around for any product or service, there are lots of questions in their minds that need to be addressed before they’re ready to buy. When you reach the end of a demonstration or sales conversation, you should have a running list of each of the concerns or questions they brought up throughout the process.

At this point, you will have already discussed each of these. The purpose of this process isn’t to give new solutions or explanations, it's to make sure you’ve addressed each and every question they have and help them gain mental clarity about their buying decision.

2. Give a summary of each question, concern, or objection and the solution you provided during your conversation.

If you’ve reached the end of your sales conversation and the potential customer hasn’t already asked you how to move forward, it's time to begin the summary process. This is where you pull out your list of your prospect’s questions and concerns and give a summary of each one and its solution.

Your goal is to help them gain clarity and confidence in their decision by running back through these questions or concerns and reminding them the solution for each one. I usually say something like, “Before we end our conversation today, I just want to affirm that I have covered everything you need to know to make a good decision.”

IMPORTANT: This is NOT a question. You’re not asking them if everything is clear.

Instead, you are listing out each of their questions and concerns and the answer or solution you provided and asking them to reaffirm that everything is clear.

For example, “You told me the neighborhood you’re living in right now isn’t working because it doesn’t feel like a safe area. And in this home, you believe you would feel much safer because of the low crime rates in the neighborhood and the security features on the home. Do I have that right?”

Repeat this process for each and every one of their questions or concerns.

3. Address any additional concerns before moving on.

If I give my summary and the prospect has a follow-up question or responds by saying, “Well, not exactly.” I know I haven’t quite done my job. Then it's time to go back to the conversation where I address and help them solve each of their questions until I know I’ve provided a solution for each one.

4. Once all concerns have been addressed, assume the prospect wants to move forward.

If you’ve gone through your list of all concerns and objections and the customer has reaffirmed the solutions you gave for each one, it's time to move forward with the close. Rather than asking them if they want to move forward, you can operate with the expectation that since all their concerns have been met, they want to move forward.

You can say something like, “Based on everything you told me, what I might suggest is that we go ahead and get the paperwork in order while you’re here in person.” or, “Based on everything we talked about, I would suggest that we go ahead and get you in touch with our purchasing department.”

5. If they still object, you can show genuine surprise.

If you’ve received yeses to each of the questions and solutions during your summary, and when you asked them to move forward, you receive a no.... You can act genuinely surprised!

At this point, I would let my potential buyer know that I would have never suggested the next step if I didn’t think I had met every one of their needs. Then you can find out if there’s still something blocking their final decision.

When it comes to closing sales, if you feel like you have to ask for the sale, more often than not, you’re going to be rejected. Remember, everyone wants to buy, but no one wants to be sold to.

When you ask directly for a sale, you’re likely pushing your buyer further away. Instead, you want to learn to have a sales process which leads them to a natural yes.

If you would like to see a full script for the Assumptive Summary Sales process so you can get the details of what it sounds like in action, send me an email at debora@primeperformancestrategies.com and I’ll send it your way!