Let’s start this discussion with a stipulation that all successful sales have to go through some sort of closing stage. Nothing happens until a customer or client agrees to pay your company for the delivery of a service or a product. So, in the strictest sense, I guess we can call that a “close”. We can also imagine that all commerce in the world would come to a screeching halt unless some kind of transaction closing happened. 
So, good closing techniques are essential – right? And if that’s so why am I targeting closing techniques as a myth?
A Closing Process is Different than a Closing Technique
A “Closing Process” is likely to be mechanistic. Get the quantity and delivery dates correct, get the PO issued and confirm with the customer your ability to meet the delivery schedule. These days that process may be enabled by all sorts of mobile systems, and field inventory accessibility tools. That’s mechanistic closing.
“Closing Techniques” are something different all-together. Closing Techniques are many times designed to manipulate the emotions of the buyer, or to create a sense of urgency, guilt or fear, toward the end of triggering a commitment to buy. At one level, an example might be a car salesman saying something like, “Well, these models are going fast. In fact, there was a guy in here earlier that test drove and liked the exact car you just expressed an interest in. He said he was bringing his wife back this evening for a final decision.” Or, in a business-to-business environment, “We are just about at capacity and if you really need delivery in July, we need to get your order committed and on the schedule no later than end of this week.”
Well before you assume that closing techniques are cool, perhaps even having been indoctrinated by the training your own sales management required, consider the following information – then decide for yourself.
The Impact of being “Closed” by a “Closing Technique”
Neil Rackham in his book “SPIN Selling” reveals the results of 10 years of research done by the Huthwaite Center into high $-value sales success, analyzing 10,000 sales people and 35,000 sales calls in 27 countries. They studied 116 factors that might contribute to sales success.
The results of that study concluded that customers with which “Closing Techniques” were used (emotional, urgency or fear) were:
- Less likely to buy
- Less likely to re-buy
- Less likely to be satisfied after the buy
Admittedly that is an extremely brief description of his work and its conclusions. But it is compelling – and I strongly recommend all sales managers read “SPIN Selling“. It may alter, for the better and forever, your thoughts about training your sales people to use “Assumptive” closes, the “Standing Room Only” close, the “Alternative” close, or any other trick closing technique.
The Huthwaite SPIN model offers an excellent, and more effective, sales process alternative. SPIN is an achronym, and stands for Situation, Problem, Implication and Need-Payoff. The SPIN selling process trains people how to use questions of each type to win a sale.
So, Why is So Much Emphasis Still Placed on the Training and Use of “Closing Techniques”?
Today, the pressure on Sales Managers to produce sales results is higher than it has been in years. Foreign and price-based competition, combined with a still iffy and sluggish economy is resulting in significant pressure on small-to-mid-sized firms. The result is that CEOs, Owners and Sales Managers believe that closing techniques will somehow move a sale forward more quickly. But, in my experience I find that they are, for the most part, ignorant of what the data from the Huthwaite study reveal – and ignorant of other more effective sales techniques. And, they may be pressed to find the time or money to embark upon such a change of direction and approach in mid-stride.
Customer and Client Collaboration Works Much Better
So rather than disenfranchising your sales prospects with slick closing techniques, consider a sales approach more like the Winter Olympics sport of curling. A good sales person is like the “sweeper” who, through patient and detailed questioning, problem solving and collaboration leads the customer to the best answer to help them achieve their goal.
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