Plan to Close the Sale

I was watching the Waste Management Open golf tournament and marveled at Kyle Stanley who had just lost an event after leading by 7 strokes the week before. He persisted and closed the deal and won in Scottsdale AZ.This remarkable turnaround made me think about many sales people that do all the necessary work, but fail to close the deal.

At a recent sales meeting one of the sales people commented he was having difficulty closing enough deals. He had taken 85 deals through the company's sales process, but only closed 3.

Obviously as a sales professional you know you'll lose more deals than you close. Yet often sales people sub-optimize their efforts by not being focused when the timing is right to ink the deal.

In the above case the sales person made a fundamental error by simply emailing or dropping off his proposals vs. scheduling an appointment or conference call to present them. The time when you have brought the customer to the logical point in the sales process where there is a formal proposal for business is a powerful moment.

It should be the culmination of a lot of work, thus making it a meaningful event is critical to improving your close ratio. Plan the event, summarize all the key points, be prepared for potential objections, have options thought out, and ask for the deal.

You have earned the right don't sub-optimize your efforts!