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The Call-to-Action: Closing the Sale By Tom Reilly Nothing happens until someone sells something. How many times have you heard that in your sales career? The bottom line is that no one is paid to make calls; salespeople are paid to make sales. That happens when you ask for the business. Closing is getting action from the buyer. Every sales call must conclude with an action step. At a minimum, you must get agreement to the next step in the process—a follow-up meeting, commitment to trying a sample, facilities tour, etc. Ideally, you want a commitment to buy. You must conclude every sales call with action. Ask the buyer to do something. When he complies, he is helping move the sale along the path. When planning your sales call, always set a call objective for this action step. Why would you make a call and not have an action objective? Closing generally involves two questions: an opinion question (sometimes called a trial close) and a commitment question. With the opinion question, you want to determine how the buyer feels about your solution. When you get a positive response to the opinion question, proceed with the commitment question, which is your request for action. For example, it may sound like this, "How do you feel about our solution?" "It sounds good to me." "Great, let's complete the paperwork so we can schedule an installation date." As a salesperson, you must create results. This happens when you ask for something at the end of your sales call. If you're not asking for something, you're not creating results. About the author: Tom Reilly is a professional speaker and author of Value Added Selling. |
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