Reggie Johnson's sales training program "How to Close More Customers" is available at www.success-tapes.com
It is amazing how the typical sales person will do almost everything correct in the sales presentation except the most important phase: asking for the order.
Surveys have shown the typical sales person will try to qualify the customer, demonstrate the product or service, and overcome objections. However, the average sales person NEVER asks the client to buy!
This is especially true when selling products that are intangibles. Examples are policies, extended service agreements, and warranties. This is because they spend too much time demonstrating the product and using it as a “crutch.”
Another key reason is because many sales people have low self esteems. Studies have shown they have the inability to distinguish the difference between rejection and refusal. When a clients says “no”, they are not REJECTING the individual, they are simply REFUSING the offer.
With proper training, sales counselors can be shown how to CONFRONT FEAR. In depth ways are shown in my “Secrets of Selling Extended Service Contracts” and "How to Close More Customers" sales training programs.
Dale Carnegie stresses in its program, two things one can do in overcoming fear: Decide the worst that can happen and then accept it. For example, the worst thing that can happen when one asks for the order is being refused. If you are willing to accept this, you are no longer afraid to “ask for the order.”
Two things will happen when one asks for the order: You will get the order or you will not be successful. Sales people should be told to look at the odds. Imagine every time you went to Vegas you either broke even or won! Would you then be afraid to gamble?
This happens in the sales presentation. Before you asked for the order you did not have it. If you ask for it and are refused you end up with what you had in the beginning (you broke even). Many customers will buy simply because you asked (you have now won!) Asking for the sale is only part of the process. In my sales training program, we will discuss twenty proven ways to close the sale. Until then ... just do it!
