Every salesperson has been loaded up with specific efforts on how to compel customers to buy. We spend enormous amounts of time practicing closes, which many times are perceived as efforts to prove the customer wrong and the salesperson right. Common sense cries foul on this! No one wants to be told they made a wrong decision and any effort to show that we know more than the customer is sure to create more resistance than success! This one principle has proven true; the vacuum created by the lack of building value in a product offered will be filled with discounts and quick efforts to close a customer. The “closing” success rate is extremely low if this is the effort used. There is a better way, and it must be part of a two-step process.
Build an irresistible offer!
Building value must be a visual and interactive effort to enable the customer to see their need for a product and what it will do for them. True and current data should be provided to show the information is verified by third party sources and can be relied on to make decisions. We can tell a customer that the price of repairs has increased dramatically. Yet, without third party verification, we are expecting them to trust us and our information.
However, if we show them a visual illustrating that the price of Auto Zone stock has increased by 70% over the last 12 months, that is believable. “We don’t get parts from Auto Zone to repair your vehicle. However, this illustrates the skyrocketing cost of parts and repairs on your vehicle and a major reason why a service contract is more important than ever.” That is a more compelling process than simply saying “the cost of repairs is more expensive than ever. “Customers are screaming, “show me, provide me with what you are saying.” So, give them what they want. When you build an irresistible offer by illustrating the value of the coverage you are now ready to go for the close.
Do not close on the product you are offering, close on something else!
When attempting to move a customer to buy a service contract, close on the date to first payment. “That’s why I strongly recommend you go with the service contract. So, would you like your first payment in 45 days as you said earlier or on a different day?” When a customer originally says no to our offering and we build an irresistible offer filled with value, in place of asking them to say “no” or “yes” to the product, ask them to say yes to something else that is much easier and non-debatable! Whatever you attempt to close on will be the focus of your customer.
If that sounds like the assumptive close, you are hearing correctly! We have lost the value of this effort and mostly because we have detached up from the value building process. The assumptive close was created to do one thing; make it easy for a customer to say yes to something they said no to just a few minutes earlier. One of the most important parts of our job is to make “yes” easy and “no” hard. Customers like the protection products we offer, and they are interested in their value. However, many times our process makes saying “yes” hard by asking them to admit they were wrong to question the coverage of its value. Welcome an objection, embrace it and create an irresistible offer that makes “yes” easy, and then close on something else. That is a recipe for success and happy customers!
Join me on our journey to Peak Performance again next month. Keep climbing!
