Mastering the World of Selling: The Ultimate Training Resource from the Biggest Names in Sales

Chapter 42. The Key to Growing Your Sales: Work on Your Openings, Not Your Closings!

Ron Karr

Karr Associates

CEOs are always looking for ways how to help their salespeople enhance their closing skills. I always tell them that often, it's not the closing skills that are limiting their salespeople's success, it's their opening skills! If the conversation is started properly, the right questions are asked, and the correct value proposition is put forth, closing the deal often becomes the next logical step. Don't get me wrong. You still have to ask for the order. But without the right opening, often the wrong value proposition is put forth, and the close doesn't happen. And that's if the salesperson has managed to keep the customer's attention and arrived at the closing stage to begin with.

Like all effective leaders, top-producing salespeople have to gain their customers' time and attention if they are going to succeed in selling their ideas and products/services. The key to gaining someone's attention is to start the conversation with the outcomes you will produce versus how you will produce them.

Remember, people don't want to be sold in today's economy. They do want help with the acquisition process. As a leader, you must determine the "what" before the "how"—the "how" comes second. Your products and services represent the "how," which means that they are not what you should be starting the conversation with. If you start with the "how" first, the customer will think you are only there ...