“Our salespeople can’t close as well as they should.”

Pity the poor salesperson whose closing ratio isn’t what it ought to be. He or she is often characterized as “too soft,” “too nice” or too afraid to close the sale.

In fact, it’s quite likely that the salesperson is, indeed, asking for the sale. They may even be desperately pushing the prospect to sign on the bottom line – but with limited success.

Our experience is that the problem has to do with the beginning of the sales process rather than with the endgame.

A Sandler Solution

When a salesperson is unable to close, the post-mortem usually focuses on the proposal details, the individual’s presentation skills or the forcefulness of their closing technique. In fact, it’s far more likely that the problems lie at the other end of the sales process.

Long before a proposal is written and presented, the salesperson’s most important work takes place: Qualifying by asking such questions as:

• Is this a serious prospect for what we offer?
• What is it they are really looking for or need?
• What is the pain they want to alleviate?
• How well does our solution fit their problem?
• Do they have the money to pay for what we can provide?
• What does their decision making process look like?

Through the Sandler Training system we teach salespeople to concentrate their efforts on getting this information at the outset. Then they can tailor a proposal that clearly shows the path to solving the prospect’s problems and removing their pain. Closing then becomes a natural end to the process.

You can learn more about how Sandler Training addresses critical sales issues like this by attending one of our Business Leader’s Workshop/Luncheons: Improving Sales. For complete information, including our next workshop date, please CLICK HERE.