Achieving Sales on the Telephone - Closing a Sale

Although you will close the sale at the end of the call it is important to realise that a close is not just about a commitment to purchase, but also commitment of interest. A good salesperson will display the intention to close throughout a call, so that it does not come as a surprise to the customer at the end.

Once you have reached a point where you have summarised the agreed customer needs, related the product advantages (benefits) to these needs you are ready to ask your closing question.

There are many different questions and methods that you can use to close a sale. However, there are three golden rules you should consider. These are…

• Present the close in the form of a question

• Once you’ve asked your question be silent and wait for an answer

• If you don’t ask, you will never know if they would have purchased

Remember, both you and the person you are talking to know that your role is about closing sales. You will not ruin a good relationship by trying to close. Be confident about closing, but do not let this over-run into high-pressure tactics or rudeness. Part of your responsibility is to leave the door open for future sales.

Examples of closing questions

The Direct Close

This requires a yes/no answer. ‘Would you like to go ahead and purchase then?’ You may get a ‘no’ response, if this is the case, ask the customer why, you may have more objections to overcome.


The Alternative Close

Give the customer a choice. ‘Would you like this product, or the other?’


The Secondary Close

Ask the customer a question, which by answering means they will purchase. ‘Would you like to purchase this? Where should I send it to?’

This article is an excerpt from the workbook of the Trainer Bubble training material, 'Achieving Sales on the Telephone'. You can purchase this training course by visiting our website at www.trainerbubble.com

Ten Rules for a Successful Life

Why are some people more successful than others? Is it just that some people get all the luck and that’s just the way it is? Or is there more to it? Gary Player the famous golfer once said, “The harder I work, the luckier I get” and I think this statement has a lot of truth to it. I believe that success is a mindset and if I’m right, then that means that anyone can achieve it.

If you listen carefully to people you will notice that they become very adept at providing reasons for their ‘bad luck’. It’s the upbringing, the schooling, the boss, the partner and many other reasons including the fact that there are not enough hours in the day (eh?). I’m of the opinion that these limiting beliefs are a way of avoiding the simple truth; some people just don’t want it enough. It’s a lot easier to sit in your lazyboy chair and proclaim to the world that you didn’t get the breaks, than it is to get up and do something about it.

Now I’m not saying that everyone should want to be the best at everything they do, but I do think that those people who decide to live life in the slow lane forego their right to complain about it. If you really care that much then it’s up to you to change things.

So for those people that want to get out of the rut and move on in life, I’ve put together ten rules. If you follow them, I see no reason why success shouldn’t follow.

1. Nobody else is to blame for the way you are. Those things that happen to you (good or bad) simply create choices. You are a product of your own making.

2. The world owes you nothing. If you want the stars, buy your own ladder and climb. Nobody will give you a leg-up.

3. Thinking is not doing. Good luck rarely comes to the inactive. Hard work is a dream-maker.

4. Failure is progress. Every mistake is a step closer to success, as long as you learn from it.

5. Focus on the important things in life. If you spend too long worrying about the small things, that’s all you’ll end up with.

6. Take pride in what you do. There’s no shame in thinking positively about yourself. If you don’t love you, nobody else will.

7. Celebrate success. If it goes right, shout it from the roof-tops. You can learn from good stuff too.

8. Take what works and build on it. If you find success in one area, model it and apply the learning to other areas.

9. Stick with it. There will be moments when it all seems like too much hard work, that’s when you’re getting closer.

10. Share your success with others, there’s enough to go around. Successful people work together and build winning relationships.

There you have it, ten simple steps to achieving your dreams. So stop looking for reasons not to succeed and start working towards your goals. I’ve never once heard an elderly person complain about the things they did in life, but I’ve heard a few regrets about the things they didn’t.

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Achieving Your Goals - Keeping things on track

Apparently when riding the underground people look up at the map and check their progress on average every 40 seconds. Most of these people know exactly where they are going and when they will get there, so why do they do it? I suspect the answer has a lot to do with the need to track advancement and ensure that they are indeed reaching their destination, which is a bit strange considering they are on a rail and the likelihood of them not getting there is pretty much zero.

Now let’s translate this to our own goals, whether they are in life, work, sport or whatever, we are consistently told how important they are and I am sure that most people set them in one way or another. However, the question is this…

‘How often do you track your progress and ensure that you are indeed reaching your destination?’

Individuals, businesses and even parents have become great at developing goals and targets, whilst not only ensuring they are smart, but also placing them in a gorgeous laminated folder and filing them under ‘G’. The same can also often be said for business strategies. People seem to enjoy setting them (or more likely feel they have to), but when it comes to implementation something falls down.

Let’s go back to that underground journey. Imagine you realise that you’re on the wrong train and are not going to make your destination. What do you do? Well of course, you would get off and find the next available train that gets you to your stop. Maybe you would need to adapt your journey a bit and perhaps even get more than one train, but it’s far better than staying on the original train and ending up somewhere you don't want to be.

Seems obvious really, doesn’t it? Yet, in business and in life we continually fail to do this very thing. It’s as if we set our goals and then forget we ever did them. Only once we’ve reached our destination (the wrong one) do we turn around and look for someone to blame.

You see it couldn’t be your fault; you set the goal, so the hard part was done, surely? Well no, just as the driver is not to blame for the fact you are on the wrong track, your team, your friends, your enemies are not to blame for your failure to achieve your goal. If you didn’t check your progress, it’s your fault you end up in the wrong place.

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