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Those sales professionals that I’ve worked with through the years all know that I am constantly comparing the sales process to sex. The greeting, meeting, dating, engagement, marriage, kids and divorce thing is quite analogous to engaging a prospect and turning them into a customer.

One of the best applications of this girl meets boy analogy can be applied to closing a sale.

We all know that the close is the point where a decision maker agrees to buy. I get tired of sales trainers who obsessively focus on “the close” as if it represents the entire sales process. It’s important, to be sure, but it’s only part of the sales process and shouldn’t require an inordinate amount of effort on our part.

If we’ve properly completed all of the parts in the sales process, this concluding piece should be easy. In fact, it should be as easy as a first kiss.

Think about it. You meet someone and get to know them. There is chemistry. One thing leads to another and before you know it you’re face to face in a candlelit restaurant enjoying a glass of wine. The kiss just happens. No planning, no big strategies, it just naturally happens. It was part of the normal course of events that evening.

Closing a sale is exactly the same. If we’ve done our job, no arm twisting of the prospect or customer will be required. The close will naturally and comfortably fit into the normal course of things.

Many salespeople get anxious about the close. “Should I close them today? What kind of close should I use? Should I experiment with trial closes?” Doing this can really rob us of confidence and diminish the work we’ve done leading up to that point.

I used to have a customer that said to me, “Scott, I know you’re not here for a social visit because you’ve been working hard to earn our business. Where’s the order for me to sign?” We know we’ve done a good job handling the sale when the customer or prospect expects to be closed. Sometimes they even ask to be closed.

Should we ignore closing skills? Not entirely. But I want us to remember that the close is the final punctuation, and nothing more, to a well written sentence.

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Tags: closing

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