The Confirmation Step
Want to close more deals? Use the Confirmation Step and watch your closing ratio soar.
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The Confirmation Step
Salespeople are constantly sending emails asking me how they can close more business. My advice rarely has anything to do with closing techniques which, in my opinion, are almost always too little too late. In this episode we’ll discuss one of my favorite steps in the sales process that executed correctly will, immediately impact your closing ratio.
The Three Major Steps of a Sales Professional
My dad is considered by many of his peers to be one of the top trial lawyers in the United States. During the summers, when I was growing up, he would often take me to court with him. It was during those trips, while watching him, and others, that I learned something important about lawyers. In court, when presenting or selling their case to the jury, they never ask a question for which they don’t already know the answer. In other words, by the time they get to court (despite what you see on TV), there are no surprises. They make their case to the jury systematically using evidence and witnesses that have already been vetted through pre-trial discovery and depositions. They have even taken time to research the jury members to gain a clear understanding of what is important to each of them.
Learning this lesson as a kid paid off for me as a Sales Professional. As I applied the pre-trial discovery process to selling I found that I closed more deals, negotiated better terms and conditions, and developed stronger relationships. And, I was almost never dealt surprises during presentations or closing. In fact, while I was anchoring my relationships, and strengthening my case, my competitors were running around trying to learn top secret closing techniques that would magically deliver the deal.
The real secret to closing is working with qualified prospects and executing the sales process. Once you are working with a qualified prospect or customer your sales process generally will cross through three to four major steps, depending on your product or service. Those steps are Discovery (or information gathering), Presenting, Closing, and in some cases Implementation and Transition. Of course there are many sub steps but these are generally acknowledged as the major parts of the sales process.
The Confirmation Step
But, I believe there is an additional step that most trainers and 80-90 percent of sellers leave out. This is the step I learned from my dad. Executed correctly, this one step, with the exception of qualification, will have a greater impact on your closing ratio than any other in the sales process. In this step, which comes after Discovery and before your Presentation, you sit down with your prospect or customer (sometimes this means multiple people in an account), and confirm and verify the information and problems you have uncovered. In the Confirmation Step you allow your prospect to correct any mistaken assumptions you’ve made, fill in any gaps, and most importantly you allow them to prioritize the issues that are most important to them.
Usually this step only takes a 15-30 minute conversation over the phone or in person and is set up like this:
Hi Bob, this is Jeb Blount, the Sales Guy from Quick and Dirty tips, thank you for taking so much time with me to help me understand your needs and issues. I can’t wait to present my solutions at our meeting next week. Before I do that though, I want to be sure that I don’t waste your time with non-important things. Since I’ve uncovered a lot of opportunities to help you I was wondering if I might have 15 minutes of your time just to review my assumptions just to be sure I’m on track to help you get what you want. Would 3pm tomorrow work for you?
This simple act sets up an informal meeting during which Bob will confirm your assumptions, prioritize what is important to him, and tell you exactly what you need to do to close him. And there are some other incredible benefits. It shows him that you really care about his needs and concerns, demonstrates your commitment to excellence, and it gets you in front of him one more time before the presentation which further strengthens your relationship. You will also do this with the comfort of knowing that none of your competitors will take this extra step.
Most importantly, when you walk into your presentation there will be no surprises. You will know exactly which solutions to present, which problems to solve, and on which hot buttons to focus your attention. You will systematically make your case and wow your audience with your knowledge and understanding of their business issues. And by the time you get around to signing the contract, closing the business will seem almost anti-climatic because closing wasn’t something you did or some cheesy technique you used, it was simply a result of understanding clearly what was important to your customer and building an iron clad case for your solution.
This is Jeb Blount, the Sales Guy.
Salesman image courtesy of Shutterstock