What is closing to you?

RainMaker

Closing is a lot of things, but in its most simplest form, it is still 'asking for the sale' in my book. Yes, it gets easier. No, it needn't occupy your thoughts. But YES, in my humble opinion, it will always be necessary. I think many prospects who have already decided to buy, will still wait for you to ask for their business.

Gary Boye

Good point, RM. It puts closing in a simple perspective.

adammead26

Closing is making people believe they need what they most likely dont.

If they needed it so bad they would have it already!

Marcus

Q: What is... The time in a sales call when the salesperson implies, invites or confirms a commitment?

A: Closing.

Wonderboy

Technically speaking I disagree with this definition.

I've always understood closing to mean simply having the prospect explicitly make an agreement to buy which occurs at the end of a presentation. The definition you're giving can describe the entire sales presentation (I've already stated that "You gotta open 'em up before you can close 'em).

Skip Anderson

I agree. I am astounded at the number of salespeople I see who think they are asking for the sale, but they really aren't. For instance, "So, what do you think?" is not asking for the sale and it's not "closing."

I do want to add that "closing" can also be other things than just completing a sales transation. You can also close by getting the prospect to agree to a second appointment, or a scheduled phone call, or whatever. That's closing, too.

The best to you!

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OUTSource Sales

Skip & Marcus seem closest to a definition of closing because their commentary includes more than simply "asking for the order".

I must admit that I feel pain for the rookies when I hear things like the following: "Sales Trainer Dan Kennedy has said that if you need to close, you've opened poorly." Dan seems to think that the relative time in the cyle is the key ("open" = "first" & "close" = "ending"). Sorry ... that was too easy.

Those who are truly proficient at closing are progressing steadily through the sales cycle by consistently asking for commitment (next meeting, appropriate & appealing features/benefits, terms, etc.) as well as asking for the order.

A few years ago, I was negotiating a fairly complicated deal with a HUGE multi-national. It involved them having acquired the rights to a company in the U.S. and assuming those rights extended to the software licenses listed as assets (anyone in the technology business knows that software licenses are NOT assets). They were not pleased and were borderline confrontational in almost every meeting. The revenue opportunity inherent with the software's capabilities implied a fast ROI and a strong revenue stream (video on-demand before any of us knew what it meant). It was like "pulling hen's teeth" to keep them focused on the upside. The ultimate P.O. was for about $125K because I'd negotiated a massive discount with our supplier. The P.O. had to go across to their H.O. in the Netherlands. After months of "to and fro", I got a call from their purchasing group in Ottawa seeking further discount ("I've got a P.O. for $90K if you'll authorize me to proceed") but I dug in my heels because we'd already provided a truly meaningful discount (I really went to the wall with our supplier). We got the P.O. for $125K in the fall.

My point: I couldn't tell you how many closes pushed this one along but, until the P.O. was finally in-hand, the customer was not ecstatic (the user group was definitely pleased and my contacts were thrilled)!

Good luck & Good selling!
Pat

Joe Closer

Pat, can you give a brief description of at least one of the closes you referred to in this transaction?

OUTSource Sales

Joe, you asked for "a brief description of at least one of the closes you referred to in this transaction".

To make any sense of this thread, I'll need to put some of the politics into perspective:
1. our supplier was managed by an overly agressive, boor of the worst sort ... during forecasting calls, his favorite line about lost deals was, "...someone's going under the bus for this one..." (during a time where their revenues & margins were off); and,
2. our company had the rights in Canada to their software (testing, performance/capacity mgmt tools); and,
3. the user group within the customer did application development and the specific need, in this instance, was capacity planning (ie. they had a massive percentage of their revenue forecast predicated on video on-demand ... the capacity planning tool offered them an accurate way to "predict" what was required);
4. legal counsel within our client had seriously dropped the ball when they did not point out the (not so) subtlety regarding software licenses NOT being "transferrable" when a company is acquired ... our supplier's legal counsel could NOT relent on what appeared to be a iron-fisted stance (appropriately so);

Closing samples:
1. I hit a brick wall with the supplier's legal counsel because they did NOT want to set a precendent by ignoring what is considered "cast-in-stone" (licenses) BUT I pushed them to consider the entire situation by doing a rendition of the Ben Franklin close ... UNsuccessfully;
2. during numerous teleconferences, the VP sales at our supplier was an arrogant jerk who would not listen to our justificiation for providing massive incentives to get this done quickly as the list price for the required configuratoin was approx. $250K US (remember that, given the erroneous assumption wrt software licenses, this was entirely UNbudgetted) ... we had proposed a number of alternatives (eg. give them 'X' seats free + pay list for balance; propose discounted professional services: waive the license fiasco; etc.) but he needed the margin for his bonus and was concerned that his forecasting bonus would be lost (I found these points out quite by accident) ... I positioned the situation, "...the competition is at his desk weekly with their tools attractively priced. If pressed, they might drop back 10 and punt this whole thing into next fiscal year. Remember, 100% of zero will NOT get you to your targets this year, so, it comes down to it you either:
a) accept the heavily discounted existing software and make it up with additional seats at list with implied PS revenue; or,
b) table something else immediately which illustrates that we are genuinely interested in assisting them with their business"
Without breathing I finished with, "... which works better for you, (a) or (b)?"
3. during a training session at our supplier's H.O. (in the summer), the president walked in to participate one of the luncheons with channel partners. He sat next to me, talked small stuff for a few minutes, then, blurted out, "when will this be coming off the forecast?" His body language was brutal as he was leaning almost on my shoulder as he sat in his seat: talk about anxious! I briefly told him that we had everything in front of the user group and, given the fact that it was an unbudgetted initiative over $100K US, it MUST go to CFO at the the customer's global H.O. in the Netherlands. He asked if I would be upset if his SR for Canada made a direct call to my contact. I said, "... if you are expressing frustration, I acknowledge it and I understand. BUT if you are expressing some sort of lack-of-confidence, then I can only assume that you're getting a jaded report on what's transpired to date." Without waiting, I added, "However, where I acknowledge the fact that you guys have a lot riding on this opportunity, you're putting your fiscal/forecasting issues in front of someone within the user group (ie. my contact) who has absolutely no interest in YOUR problems. Which would you rather do:
a) without injuring the process, ask me ANYTHING you want today about what's in-process; OR,
b) have someone who the client doesn't know, phone out of the blue and put the entire relationship into jeopardy?"

Joe Closer, I think you get the idea that I can't do this without getting the situation into perspective. So, for the sake of brevity, I'll wrap this diatribe here ...

Good luck & Good selling!
Pat

Joe Closer

I do undertand, Pat.

Your example(s) above, more than anything else, serve as a demonstration of very clear thinking on your part. I admire your professionalism. I admire your ability to decipher and confront the purest issues.

Thank you so much for sharing.