“Sales training over the years has clearly put much too great emphasis on closing.”
Spin Selling — Neil Rackham, page 39
The Big Three of sales training over the last hundred years has included: Closing, up-selling, and overcoming objections. At the risk of upsetting a thousand sales gurus, authors, and high-priced corporate speakers, I am fast to say that this has become “yesterday’s news.” People are too smart today to fall prey to a salesperson’s gift of gab. This is not a shell game. This is an honest attempt at helping people make good decisions.
Let’s get real. If you want to learn how to “close” more sales, spend more time and effort on learning how to “open” more sales. Huh?
You probably are familiar with the phrase from the movie “Jerry McQuire” when Renee Zellweger says to Tom Cruise, “You had me at hello.” That may have been the perfect reminder for salespeople to focus on the importance of “opening” meaningful relationships.
How you greet people, introduce yourself, look people in the eye, listen and interpret their issues, concerns, and yes, problems will lead you to more favorable “closes” than studying and practicing clever retorts.
That is my story for today, and I’m sticking to it.
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