The Overrated Game of Closing

(The following was directly inspired by Spin Selling by Neil Rackham)

The pros in sales know that every amateur that comes into the field is technique based. The amateur asks himself: "What technique can I learn to make the sale?"

Invariably, amateurs discover the concept of closing and boy is that appealing to them. If only he can learn the right close, the amateur thinks. Worst yet, the amateur is directly rewarded for his close with business (once in a while). The amateur never stops to think that there might be a recency bias and that just because the business came right after the close doesn't mean that it was because of the close that the business was transacted.

Interestingly enough, the same exact phenomenon can be witnessed in the arena of dating and women. (let's define closing as kissing a girl).

Men, or should I say boys, want to learn the pick up line they should say or the "kiss-close". The concept is that if you say the right close in the right tone you can close any girl.

Conversely, the pros understand that the goal of the night is to create so much value for the girl that the close becomes inevitable.

The same thoughts are transferable to sales, you do not need a close to "sell" a client if you have successfully showed the client the benefits that the product/service would provide to him. It is what Eben Pagan calls "The Path of Self Advantage", the question being how do we set up a product/service in such a way that it is in the client's best interest to buy?

Guess what happens when we do this... When this happens the client himself will try to close you! As Peter Drucker said, "The goal of marketing (positioning the product perfectly for the client) is to make selling unnecessary."

Warning: The following post is only relevant to big ticket items. Why? Because if you put someone in an awkward relationship and try to close them on a $5 pen, it is highly likely that the person will buy from you because the cost $5 is higher then the cost of having to deal with you.

However, in the above case you will never be able to sell to that client again.