What if I told you that you can close more sales if you don’t try to close the sale? Does that go against everything you’ve been taught about negotiation? That’s what I also thought when expert negotiator Jim Camp first brought this idea to my attention.
I asked Jim if our marketing consultants should try to close their clients when they do their Opportunity Analysis. Jim reminded me of the Oxford Dictionary definition of negotiation:
“The effort to achieve an agreement between two or more parties with the right of veto of all parties.”
If a consultant enters an Opportunity Analysis with the mindset that they are going to use some tactics to close the lead in their marketing services, then they have violated the definition above by trying to take away the veto right.
By using closing tactics and not focusing on whether or not the service is suitable for the potential customer, you are trying to disenfranchise potential customers to say no to your offer. In any business transaction, tactics that try to mislead someone will never work in the long run.
Instead, your goal should not be to close the customer, but to find out as much as you can about the customer’s needs to see if you can meet that need. You want to give them a chance to say no to you.
Why give them a chance to say no?
Your goal is not for them to say no. Your goal is to get them to say yes. But, you should only want this “yes” as a result of you being the best solution to your problem.
So figuring out what your needs are and then showing how you can best solve that problem is the proper way to negotiate a closing. Make yourself and your irresistible solution for the prospect.
You can only do this if you present everything to them and say, “This is what I understand your challenges to be and this is how I can help you overcome those challenges.”
This is achieved by spending as much time as possible in the customer’s world and not yours.
If you can properly identify your challenges and can actually help overcome them, the transaction will close on its own. You have already addressed the potential customer’s needs and given them the opportunity to say no.
If you have explained things correctly, they have no reason left to say no. You have closed the deal.
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