In Your Next Sales Call, Don't Go For The Close

Most successful sales conversations don’t end by closing the sale.

This may not be true for you if you’re a timeshare salesman, a clerk in a retail store, or an airline reservations agent. But for most everyone else it is true.

Examples:

• You are an independent graphic designer and you meet someone at a party … the sales conversation is successful if the future customer enthusiastically remembers the conversation, and goes to your website to check it out when he returns home after the party.

• You sell large software projects and you have finally been invited to meet the CEO of a company you are trying to sell … the sales conversation is successful if the CEO tells his team he really likes you and your offerings, and tells them to move forward with you.

• You are a CPA, and you have breakfast with a long-term client … the sales conversation is successful if the client shares his fears about his own business, and gives you the name of a friend desperately in need of your services.

The common thread in each of these examples is that your relationship with the customer was better at the end of the sales conversation than it was at the beginning. Successful selling is usually not about going for the close. It’s about advancing your relationship.

Try it today … don’t go for the close!

[Read more by Cool Friend Steve Yastrow at his website.]

Steve Yastrow posted this on August 25, 2009, in Marketing.
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