Closing the sale

As a small business person your future may depend on closing the sale.

If your reason for starting a business was love of your product, you may assume everyone is as eager to possess it as you were. Most of them probably aren't.

A first step to sales is to ask questions, listen to the answers, and then ask more questions. This will save everyone time and help you help any future customers identify their need.

There are many intermediate steps to a sale - but don't get stuck with having to follow a list of steps. When the customer is ready to buy - sign them up. You will know when they are ready to buy if you are asking questions.

Often someone is ready to buy, they know they want the product, but they are avoiding the decision. If you let them walk away they probably won't be back, they will avoid the pressure of the situation.

The buying decision is the pressure - not your pitch - once the purchase is made the pressure is gone. When the deal is on the table, you need to close.

A sales close is just a tool to help your client make a decision in their best interests.

A simple two choice sales close is an easy way to start. Offer a complex solution or a simple one - either choice will be a sale.

• Do you want to pick out motherboard, processor, software, hard drive, graphics card and the other pieces or would you rather have the ARW 2000 model that seems to meet your needs?

there are a lot of sales closes, maybe we will do more in a future post.

Allan R. Wallace

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