MoneyWatch

Closing Rule #2: Set an Objective.

By Geoffrey James

Updated on: October 10, 2007 / 8:18 AM EDT / MoneyWatch

Myth: Every sale has a single, all-important point where the deal closes. Truth: Some extremely simple sales processes have a defined close point, but complex sales processes (i.e. almost all B2B sales) have a series of points where the prospect makes a decision, even if it's just the decision to let you pitch, rather than pitch you out. According to closing guru Linda Richardson all sales go through four phases, each with its own type of close:

Initial. The "close" is moving from a cold-call into the sale cycle.
Developmental. The "close" is gathering information to define a solution.
Culmination. The "close" is the asking for the next step or for the business.
Follow-up. The "close" is ensuring that the relationship goes forward.

Your job is to make certain that all those "closes" take place in a timely manner. Therefore:

Rule #2. Set an Objective for Each Meeting. At every point in the sales process, you should always have a closing objective that is specific, measurable and appropriately aggressive. I'm not talking about crunchy granola, touchy-feely goals like "get closer to the customer" or "learn about customer needs." Yeah, you need to do those things, but those are processes, not goals. Goals are specific and measurable, like:

I will get a list of the key decision-makers.
I will get a copy of the competitor's proposal.
I will obtain a working description of the customer's problem.
I will get first access to my customer contact's boss.

And, of course, eventually:

I will ask for the business.

Richardson says that your closing objective should be aggressive, but appropriate to the stage of the sales cycle. For example, setting a goal to "ask for the business" on the first sales call for a million-dollar deal is probably setting yourself up to fail. This isn't to say that you can't be flexible and ask for the business on those rare opportunities where a deal gets fast-tracked. But you should always have a "stretch" objective for every sales meeting and make your best effort to close on that objective.

By the way, the incredible advantage of treating the sales cycle as series of closes is that the approach makes it easier and more natural to ask for the business, when it's time to achieve that particular objective. More on this tomorrow.