Brendan Alan Barrett
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Brendan Alan Barrett

I'm a young professional writing about the lessons learned in my short experience.

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Just Shut-Up and Close the Deal

4/14/2013

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  When we get our start in sales we are coached in all the ways of pitching our product or service, handling objections, and even preemptively avoiding those objectives. While these are important skills to have, we are also all taught many of the same techniques in closing as well. The finesse of closing however, is bit more troubling to master than everything else. Unfortunately, we don’t get points for a great execution of our sales process leading up to a sale lost to our competitor.  

The Assumptive Close and Asking for The Business are the most basic. Many of us find these to be most successful in conjunction with each other. If you don’t ask for the business the client can’t say yes and you haven’t given them the opportunity to cut the check. By assuming the sale you are telling them that this is the point in the conversation where they sign on the dotted line or make the payment. Even the guy standing on the curb washing windshields with yesterday’s newspaper knows this.

If you’ve done your job as a sales person, you’ve already painted the picture of what you’re client really needs, why you are the best person/company to fulfill that need, and why they need to act on that information today. From there, it is only natural that they do business with you. Right?

Using assumption to ask for the business:

  •   “All together your solution comes to $XXX,XXX.XX, which payment option did you want to use?”
  •   “When did you want us to start?”

Why Do So Many Deals Fall Through at The Close?

Answer – The sales person should have SHUT-UP.

When it comes to closing a sale, if you’ve asked for the business, by means of assumption or otherwise, it is time to be silent. At this stage in the sales process you should be allowing the client to make sense of all the information you’ve provided. Give the client the time they need to reach the conclusion you’ve been working so hard to steer them toward.

Too often sales people continue to talk and give more justification for things they have already covered. Justifications should have already been made apparent at this point. By continuing to talk you are overburdening the clients’ thought process. This makes it much more likely that they will start to fear making a reckless decision. In a state of panic the client is likely to end the meeting so that they can “Think it over,” or even worse they may tell you “I’m not sure if this is the direction we want to go,” and kill the sale right there.

Why is Silence Key?

1.      Strategic silence gives the client the time to talk themself into why they should do business with you.

2.      Without giving the client time to consider your argument they can be sent into a state of panic that will kill the sale before your solution is even considered.

3.      It exudes confidence. By continuing to speak before you are spoken to you can come off as if you don’t have confidence in yourself or your offerings. If that is the case, why should the client?

What about Objections?

There are almost always objections and you should have had plenty of practice answering them in your training, in practicing on your own, or on the job.

During your close, refrain from bring up objections that the client hasn’t brought up themselves. While that seems like a no-brainer, when some of us get into more long winded answers to a client’s objections we stumble into this mistake.

Your rebuttal to objections should be as succinct as possible. The goal is to refute the clients concerns and continue to give them the silence they need to mentally prepare themselves to give you their business.

How Long Should I be Silent?

Until you’ve been asked a question you are expected to answer.

Sometimes clients will ask questions as they think to themselves out loud. Give yourself a moment before answering, to make sure that the client is really looking to get an answer from you. They may answer the question themselves or ask three or four more questions before they actually get to one the really want you to answer.

You’ll need to feel it out a bit, which comes with experience. Keep in mind though, that nearly every time you break the silence you should be asking for the business.

Client: “But your competitor is less expensive”

               Sales Person: “That’s true and I can compete with that, but you’d miss out on Value XYZ and you mentioned when we started that XYZ was really important to you, is that still true?”

               Client: “Oh, of course!”

               Sales Person: “Ok, well with that, did you decide on five or six dozen widgets?”

Question Time! [Be sure to comment and share your thoughts and insight!]

What are your favorite closing techniques?

What was the coolest sale you’ve ever seensaved or saved yourself from The Land of No-Way-Is-This-Going-To-Sell?

Or you could share a sales horror story!

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What Does Your Mobile Office Look Like?

4/14/2013

0 Comments

 
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Many of us work from the road or just find that our productivity soars when we add the white-noise of a public workspace.  For whatever reason you find yourself working from your favorite café or just the most convenient coffee shop, chances are that you can’t be without the resources of a standard office. Consequently, being able to mobilize those resources can be very important.

Personally, I do a lot of traveling and working from a typical office isn’t very practical. To make the most of my work day I utilize my phone and my GPS to find the most geographically convenient coffee shops and cafes to serves as the day’s workspace. 

Regardless of where I’m working I still need the office essentials and I’ve been slowly acquiring a set-up that makes things as convenient and functional as possible.

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HP ElitePad with Expandable Battery Jacket

I love this thing! Not only is incredibly portable and great for giving impromptu presentations but it also operates on a full version of Windows 8. I never need to sync my tablet with my computer or the other way around because my tablet is my computer.

With the protective jacket I don’t have to worry too much about possible damage from dropping it throughout the shuffle of the busy work day. What’s even better is that the jacket houses the battery expansion making it so I have to charge my tablet less often than my phone. I just plug it when I go to sleep and it’s ready for a full day of use before I even wake up in the morning.

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Toshiba 500 GB External Hard Drive


If you are not backing-up your work in multiple locations you are setting yourself up for a world of hurt.

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Logitech Bluetooth Keyboard with Stand and Logitech Bluetooth Mouse

These add-ons give me all the user friendliness of a traditional PC. While the table’s touch screen operation makes presentations super sleek and that much more impressive, large scale document creation and editing are much easier with a traditional mouse and keyboard.

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Samsung Galaxy SIII

I’m lost without my email during to the work day and a smartphone fixes that problem. The G SIII has the added bonus of a huge display because I strain my eyes enough looking at screens all day.

 The camera on here is great and makes communicating with the office and other members of the staff much easier.

I’ll probably add tethering to my AT&T plan soon. That way I can get the internet on my tablet outside of localized WiFi hot-spots.




So now it’s question time. [I look forward to your comments!]

What does your mobile office look like?

 What should I add to mine to increase productivity?

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