Closing is a sales term which refers to the process of making a sale. The sales sense springs from real estate, where closing is the final step of a transaction. In sales, it is used more generally to mean achievement of the desired outcome, which may be an exchange of money or acquiring a signature. Salespeople are often taught to think of targets not as strangers, but rather as prospective customers who already want or need what is being sold. Such prospects need only be “closed.”
“Closing” is distinguished from ordinary practices such as explaining a product’s benefits or justifying an expense. It is reserved for more artful means of persuasion, which some compare with confidence tricks. For example, a salesman might mention that his product is popular with a person’s neighbors, knowing that people tend to follow perceived trends. This is known as the Jones Theory.
In automobile dealerships, a “Closer” is often a senior salesman experienced in closing difficult deals.
In Real Estate a top sales representative’s take on the earliest form of the word “Closer” as in closing escrow.
Closing techniques include major and minor closing questions for example: Minor Close – “Mr. Customer, would you prefer lighter or darker flooring in your new home?” Minor Close – “Mr. Customer, would you like go with standard kitchen countertops or do you prefer to go with the granite upgrade?” Major Close – “Mr. Customer, now that we’ve taken care of your flooring and countertop preferences let’s step in to my office so that we can wrap up the paperwork on your new home”.
Big time pros avoid using the word “closed” as in “the deal is over” unless they have affirmed the sale. A firm “no” from the customer is never the end of the sales process and thus that buyer/seller has not been closed. A true top gun pro will revisit this buyer/seller a countless number of times until the sale is affirmed.
Since fear of rejection is one of the biggest impediments to sales success for many people in sales functions they don’t actually ask for the business. Hence the constant search for “closers” in sales recruitment.
All of the “closing” techniques below are different ways to ask for the business. No matter how skillfully applied the customer has the option to answer “No.”
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