Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Close With Confidence

It's hard to know the perfect moment to initiate the close ... if only you were a mind reader, right? In the new book of sales advice, Top Dog Sales Secrets, sales expert Linda Richardson gives you the next best thing to mind reading powers -- advice on how to close the sale confidently.

Perhaps the biggest reason salespeople are hesitant to close is that they are anxious about facing rejection, or shutting down communications. This typically happens when they haven't elicited enough feedback or signals from the client to know if it's safe to close. Most often, they haven't received these closing signals because they haven't asked for them during the call.

Checking is the process of asking for feedback throughout the call. For example, after positioning your message, responding to an objection, or answering a question, ask, "How does that sound?" or "How would that work?" or "What do you think about ...?" Asking for feedback on what you've just said provides critical information, and increases your confidence either to ask for the business, or proceed to the next step. When you fail to check for feedback, asking at the end of the call becomes an all-or-nothing situation.

This nugget of sales wisdom was excerpted from Top Dog Sales Secrets, a collection of sales advice of 50 top experts edited by Michael Dalton Johnson. To get your copy plus $2,500 worth of FREE BONUS GIFTS when you buy today, click here.

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