Sales Tips | Sales Coaching

If You Can't Close Sales...

It is okay if you don't close a sale, as long as you close for something else!

In today's market place, we are all under pressure to convert potential opportunities into sales, as often as is physically possible.

There are several schools of thought that provide us with seemingly effective 'objection handling techniques' but they do seem to miss the point somewhat – they do not consider the real situation of the buyer having no need or want of your offering!

Whilst we focus on closing a sale at each customer call/meeting, this focus can lose us business in the long run –the cost of one sale versus the value of a long standing relationship is well worth considering.

So, what are we talking about?

Consider this; you go through the sales process, building rapport, understanding the customer and their business, you identify their buying criteria, present your wares, and get an emphatic 'No' when you try to close.

Is this a real 'No' or just a 'No, not yet?'

No objection handling formula can eradicate the simple lack of want or need from the customer, so what do you do next?

Simple – rather than closing a sale, close for either commitment or information.

Commitment: a meeting in the future when they may have a need.
Perhaps a referral to someone else in their organisation, another organisation, or even some mutual action along the lines of:

'If you can provide me with further information about X, then I will do Y for you'

Information: When will you buy? What will you buy? Who will you buy from? How will you select your supplier? Who else (Where else, When else, What else) buys in your organisation?

Perhaps even combine the two to get a name AND a referral!