Yes, there's a technique. Yes, there's a process, but it's a lot about mindset and if you get the right balance, it works every time. To start ...

... it might help if you read this three year old article to begin to understand the mindset.

So, here it is. My favorite close is when the prospect says, "I'm ready. How do we get started?"

Seriously! It's that simple. Talk to anybody that's hired me and ask the whether I asked them to buy or suggested that they should and they'll all say that I never asked. Read Are you a closer? from 12/20. Sometimes you'll have to help your prospect find the words to share their thoughts.

Look at the bar graph for the Closer Competency (#7). May I put this in perspective? OMG has evaluated over 1.8 miilion salespeople and the top 10% (180,000+) own an average of 43% of the closing competency. My client above had 75% and he struggled. Chances are that nobody's ever taken a close enough look at your ability to close.

Take a look at Sales Core Competency #6. Compare it to the others. Surprised? Don't most employers focus on making sure that their salespeople can talk about their product? Of course salespeople will score higher on presenting. They think that's the whole job. Product's wonderful. Company's wonderful. Blah. Blah. Blah. Ready to buy?

Do you buy from people that you don't like, respect or trust? Notice in this article that the best salespeople don't need to be liked, but are really good at bonding, developing rapport and have a relationship based sales process. Here's the problem. Salespeople suck at developing relationships almost as badly as they suck at closing. Check out the second competency. If your prospect doesn't like, respect or trust you, you're probably not getting the deal.

One last thing...

How do you shop and buy? Do you spend hours doing research on line or drive around to a dozen stores to see every model from every manufacturer? Do you get three bids or proposals? Do you call every vendor back to ask for their best price? Do you like customers that buy that way from you? How can you possibly convince them to change the way they buy when they're doing it exactly as you would? Have you read this?

That's only a few of the reasons that my close won't work for you. I'd also ask...

• Do you always deal with the decision-maker?
• Do you focus on compelling reasons to change rather than features and benefits?
• Do you and your prospect always understand the cost of consequences of doing nothing?
• Do you and they discover how and why they'd buy early in the process?
• Do you have and use your dirty laundry list?
• etc.
• etc.
• etc.

If you're a sales leader and you want to learn how to address this with your people, start here.

If you're a salesperson and your sales manager can't/won't help you with this, start here.