"Winning strategies for today’s transparent sales environment"

“Always be Closing!” The infamous words which are uttered by virtually every CEO, Business Owner or Sales Manager in the U.S.

Before I go into the specifics of why this is a ridiculous sales myth, let’s consider another area of expertise; surgery.

Think about it.  Do you hire a surgeon who is a good “closer”?  Do you determine their value because they can close a wound well?  A great surgeon is a “healer”.  They are organizing and perfecting the entire operation, not just the last step.

You want someone who takes the necessary steps to effectively heal your problem.  They have thoroughly studied your problem, have a plan to address the problem, have assembled the right equipment and support staff to help them and they have the necessary skills to achieve the objective.  In addition, they have talked the process over with you, the patient, so you feel extremely comfortable about the steps and you have complete confidence in their ability to address your situation.

The same holds true with salespeople.  You want a “connector”, not a closer.  We obviously want more closed sales and more deals in the door but to focus on the last step is taking your eye off of the bigger ball.

Do you think your customers want a “good closer”?  We know the answer to that.  What they want is a connector.  They want you to connect your products and services with their problems and issues so that they can have them “healed” (it’s no coincidence that we try to uncover the customer’s “pain”) .  Who do you think will truly win; the connector or the closer?  In addition, who do you think will win the NEXT time you engage the customer? Read More→

I am going to spend the next 2 weeks talking smack about many of the pearls of wisdom that so many sales organizations hold sacred.  Why?  Because they simply don’t work and they interfere with  your success.  Some of these “truisms” may have worked at some point in history, but that time has long since passed.  They stay alive because they keep getting passed down from one sales “professional” to another as supposed bits of wisdom.  It wouldn’t be so bad if they were just harmless little sayings like “keep your chin up” or other conversational fodder that has no real meaning.

The problem is that these myths are a lot like STD’s; you thought you were just having some fun but look at what you are left with.  Pain, suffering and embarrassment.

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