Bottleneck Breakthrough Audiobook - Chapter 6 - Closing | Ep 27

Speaker A

00:00:01.520 - 00:18:42.780

Chapter 6 closing Zig Ziglar said, if people like you, they'll listen to you. But if they trust you, they'll do business with you. We've all known that guy who could talk his way out of any kind of trouble.

Whether it was his charm, his disarming sense of humor, or the sincerity of his every apology, he rarely suffered the consequences of his actions. He could also convince you to do the craziest things.

Whether it was climbing the fence and jumping off the high dive in the middle of the night, or daring you to approach the prettiest girl at the party, he mesmerized you into action even though you were scared out of your mind. Growing up, this was the personality I heard adults say would go far in sales or worse, in politics.

If you're like most of the business owners I work with, you don't quite fit this profile. You do just fine interacting with prospects and clients.

Obviously, you've been able to get people to pay for your products or service, but you feel you could do better. You may even have hired sales staff to try to find someone more capable to handle prospects.

But as with so many companies, you've either faced chronic sales staff turnover or you're stuck with mediocre benchwarmers. Even the headhunters who specialize in placing sales staff strike out more than half the time.

Like any other bottleneck, there are a few simple solutions that can unlock massive growth in your business through better closing. I use the term closing because that's what the best salespeople focus on.

The other activities traditionally associated with sales, including cold calling, canvassing, creating quotes, writing reports, forecasting, customer service calls, and territory management are all secondary to converting prospects into clients.

In fact, I recommend that you put into place more entry level staff, freelancers and assistants to handle ancillary tasks, allowing you or your sales staff to focus on closing Sales Sales Profiles before we cover the keys to improving your closing process, I'd like to discuss the worst sales profiles that just won't seem to go away.

We've all experienced the old school fast talking salesman, the guy going door to door selling solar systems on a Saturday afternoon, or the guy with the booth at the fair selling nonstick pans. They've been around for hundreds of years selling snake oil and we see them coming from a mile away.

Amazingly, that type of salesperson still fills used car lots and they even work for major corporations like AT&T, usually in the big air quotes retention department. We'll call this profile Sleazy Sam. Nothing good comes out of buying from Sleazy Sam.

Buyer's remorse is the common outcome, giving you the same feeling after you agreed to help your friend move something only to find out it was a dead body. Obviously, since you're reading this, there's no way you'd ever sell like this or allow anyone like this within 100 miles of your company.

Sleazy Sam doesn't read or work on improving his skills. His lack of self awareness is the reason he keeps following this horrible approach to selling.

The next step up the sales ladder is the objection master. He has a canned response for every objection you offer.

Some of them sound reasonable, and he always finishes them with a trial close because he still believes you should always be closing good old abc.

In the midst of his barrage, you provide a truly worthwhile objection and he blurts out something ridiculous like do you have to check with your wife when you need to go to that bathroom? Instantly, you're snapped out of his hypnotizing routine.

He sees objections as if they're a pack of C4 strapped to a cell phone awaiting a call from a crazed bomber. The faster he can defuse it, the safer he feels. The problem is that defusing objections is just fancy arm wrestling.

You don't get anywhere and everyone feels exhausted by the end, especially when he's always trial closing you.

This is definitely the method that gained fame in the 1980s, right along with the character Blake from Glengarry Glen Ross, and it still exists in far too many companies today. The most common sales profile I see today is the friendly golden retriever happy to chase down any ball you throw.

They're the nicest people, loyal to a fault, and are easy to get to know. And as with a golden retriever, you feel at ease with them.

Their biggest problem is that they're so eager to please that they help any and every prospect that comes across their desk.

They'll waste hours answering questions from people who are just looking for info to take back to their current providers to negotiate a better deal with, or from daydreamers who have no ability to afford your product or service. Golden Retrievers also fail to demonstrate that your company is the best solution for the prospect.

They never lead them to the fulfillment process to show them that you'll take care of every critical step. Prospects bail out on golden retrievers in their companies because they never feel completely safe.

Somewhere in the back of their mind, they realize that the sales rep doesn't know everything they need, and they aren't sure the company does either. If you recognize some of these sales profiles in your company or in yourself, you're not alone.

Sell Like a Surgeon at the top of the sales mountain lives a once rare creature that is thankfully becoming increasingly common in business today. He is warm and welcoming like a golden retriever, but asks questions the prospect has never heard before.

In fact, to get a meeting with him, the prospect has to jump through a few hoops first to prove that they're qualified and worth his time. The prospect schedules an appointment for initial discussion, and the salesperson leads the conversation well. But he doesn't feel harsh.

Like a drill sergeant, he outlines the next steps and schedules the next meeting before ending the first one. This is the consultative sales pro, and if you pay close enough attention, his process is nearly identical to a surgeon's.

He never pushes the product or service onto the prospect early, even saying things like, I'm not sure this will be a fit for you. Right now, he's comfortable saying no to prospects that he doesn't think would benefit from the product or service.

Just like a surgeon would say no to a patient who wouldn't benefit from the surgery they're asking him about.

The number one goal in this role is to get on the same side of the negotiation table as the prospect to help them review their options, becoming a trusted advisor in the process.

When you get into that role, if your product or service is truly their best option, they will sign up without hesitation because you've earned their trust at every step of the way. You demonstrate your expertise by asking questions they've never been asked by any other company before.

You haven't put your needs above theirs by pushing your product or service on them before finding out what their real needs are.

And you've led them through a process they are confident you can deliver on so they feel safe that they won't be left hanging after signing the agreement or paying you. Many of the steps I just outlined may not come naturally to you, but that's okay because they weren't always natural for me either.

Like anything new, you can learn to master them over time.

Head Game before deciding to go down the entrepreneurial path I was set on being a surgeon, I sat in on knee and hip replacement surgeries with my orthopedist when I was still a senior in high school.

When I worked in the ER for two years before applying to med school, I helped all the doctors with as many procedures as possible, whether it was straightening and casting a broken leg, holding a patient in the fetal position so they didn't move during a spinal tap, or assisting while they stitched up facial lacerations. I observed the doctors from the best seat in the house.

There were a few factors that separated the best physicians from the average ones that became very obvious over time. The first was simply confidence. This wasn't arrogance, although a few definitely had that trait in spades.

It was simply the ability to deliver a diagnosis and recommend treatment to a patient without floundering. Even if the patient was scared or second guessed them, they would respond with a calm strength, reassuring the patient or answering their objection.

Clearly some of the doctors instinctively possessed this trait, but I also saw that they strengthened it over years and years of mastering their craft.

The two most senior ER doctors I worked with were not only unflappable, but they also diagnosed conditions faster and more accurately than anyone else. This was mastery personified. The atmosphere in the ER when these two doctors were working was always more enjoyable too.

Everyone followed their lead and patients were treated and moved along as quickly as possible. When a weaker ER doctor was in charge, everything changed.

Patients became more restless and making a diagnosis took significantly longer because the doctors over tested to be certain about a condition before prescribing a treatment, and the nursing staff was more chaotic stepping in to take on additional responsibility in order to fill the gaps the doctor left. The worst part of working with a weaker ER doctor was watching the stress bury them in the middle of a procedure.

Most patients couldn't see this given the position they were in, but I was front and center watching them struggle to hold it together like the best surgeons and ER doctors I got to work with. Becoming a master at the Consultative sales process starts in your head with your self confidence.

If you aren't there yet, please don't just fake it until you make it. Nobody wins in that situation and the stress you take on from it can be debilitating.

There are some great tips and techniques in the last section of the book on mindset for beefing up your thoughts and emotions.

Until you start seeing improvement in your mindset, use the following guide to help you make a huge improvement in your consultative sales skills immediately. Consultative Sales Goals Having read countless sales books, I've concluded that the vast majority of them just aren't worth reading.

I list the select few that I Recommend reading@bbg li book if you're looking for something meatier to sink your teeth into.

Compiling all the research I've read as well as what works best for my clients, I recommend the following steps to successful consultative selling first, educate prospects with new ideas or perspectives. Returning to the subject of doctors as role models this is one of the most powerful steps in their consultation with patients.

They educate them about the need for surgery, the benefits and risks involved, and what the recovery process will look like. When I worked for a consultant named Chet Holmes from Chapter five, I was impressed by his commitment to education based selling.

He showed clients that companies that educate prospects increase their loyalty to purchase from them by 67%. That's a huge bump. Second, collaborate with prospects Becoming a trusted advisor is the natural result of collaborating with prospects.

By asking questions to help them uncover the implications of their options, you help them see the situation from a more valuable perspective. The consultation moves beyond just dealing with symptoms and instead attempts to solve the root issue.

When I've done this with prospects, it often uncovers other issues they didn't realize that were contributing to the problem. One client brought me in to advise them on how to improve their lead flow after launching their redesigned website.

By considering a few questions about the redesign process with the website agency, we quickly realized the agency had neglected to go through some simple steps.

It didn't take long to uncover the mess the agency had made and to show us the real issue why their website traffic and related leads had dropped off so much after the new website was launched. 3.

Persuade prospects that they will achieve results this might surprise you, but the research is clear that buyers with large budgets count this as a positive trait of the salespeople they purchase from. So many of us are conditioned to just say no when we feel the clothes coming on that we might dismiss it as necessary.

This isn't so much about pitching the prospect on the benefits of a solution, but rather giving them a level of certainty that moving forward will lead to a positive outcome. Certainty is a fickle thing to dole out.

It has an inverse relationship to experience, since the more experience we get, the more we know the many ways things don't work out.

The ignorant are typically the ones making proclamations with the most certainty and called the Dunning Kruger Effect and can be seen in the chart on page 95 in the book or on the website at bottleneckbreakthrough.com the solution for you is that once you cross the chasm from ignorance to mastery, you have historical data to rely on. Just like any good surgeon. That's when your track record becomes the anchor for persuading clients of the positive outcome they can anticipate.

Until then, I find that stating the possible pitfalls and how they'll be handled if they come up provides enough certainty for most prospects to pull the trigger. Number four Listen to prospects we all know that listening is one of the most valuable traits in building strong, healthy relationships.

Unfortunately, this is my greatest weakness in the consultative sales approach, and I know it bleeds over into other parts of my life.

Thankfully, I'm effective enough with the other components to make up for this one, but I'm finding that it is just as important to master the skill of listening as the other four skills. If you're like me, you have a hard time listening to everything someone's saying because your mind is racing ahead to the solution.

Or it could be that you get bored easily. Whatever the reason, I found that repeating what the person is saying in my mind keeps me focused and present in the conversation.

It takes some work at first, but it is the best way to short circuit my racing thoughts and boredom. Plus, it has a very calming effect and I find I start enjoying the conversation much more. Finally, number five Understand their needs.

This skill takes a bit of empathy and strategy to really master, because you need to be able to put yourself in the prospect's shoes while also seeing their bigger picture.

There's nothing more infuriating to me than hearing about clients who bought a solution because a sales rep said whatever they thought it would take to make the sale, regardless of the fact that it wasn't useful for the client.

I understand the need to make quotas, meet shareholder demands, and feed your kids, but relying on caveat emptor, meaning buyer beware, as the mantra for your sales approach is abusive at best and criminal when you get into the land of Madoff and Belfort.

I'm against regulation, but at times I really wish there were repercussions for abusive vendors like there are for surgeons that push unnecessary procedures on patients. The tech and marketing spaces can still feel like the Wild west, and ignorance abounds on the client side, making them vulnerable to rip offs.

Put these five components together in your sales efforts and prepare to enjoy the increased close rate that results. It really is the easiest and most fulfilling method of closing new clients.

Proposals that Win if you've been in business for more than a few years, you probably have a sufficient stream of inbound prospects that keep you afloat. The ones that develop into customers are like solid base hits.

They keep the game moving along steadily and productively, if not with dramatic results.

Every once in a while you get an inquiry from a massive prospect like a hospital in the midst of building a new wing or Google looking for a team they can outsource some development to you, drop everything to try to land them, but either feel overwhelmed because there are so many details to their proposal or indifferent because you think your chances of landing this super prospect are slim to none.

From the 1 out of 10 deals like this that you could end up landing, you get a glimpse of where things could go in your business if you could just close them better.

It's definitely a catch 22 since you know there are more deals like this out there, but you can't afford to keep spending time on them when you only close 1 out of 10.

I've found that the single greatest method to improve your close rate on larger prospects is to deliver a proposal that cuts through the clutter and differentiates you instantly in the application process. That's how you massively Increase your close rate.

10x ing your close rate As I discussed in Chapter 4, Umabian Horn Engineering had been in business for over 30 years successfully providing civil engineering services to local municipalities and developers.

Some of the projects they worked on transformed rural towns from providing safe, clean water to creating innovative community parks that were the first of their kind in California.

They even helped their municipal clients secure federal grant funding for the projects since their city budgets were too strapped for anything beyond the bare necessities. Having survived the recession with minimal damage, by 2012, Umamobi and Horn wanted to pursue more projects to kickstart their firm's growth.

They began submitting proposals to cities that had published requests for proposals or RFPs and requests for qualifications or RFQs on projects they needed done. One of the senior engineers took on the task of reviewing the RFPs and RFQs and then creating the proposals or statements of information for RFQs.

Over an 18 month period, they pursued 54 RFPs and RFQs but only secured four of them in the process, a success rate of 7.4%. Then, in late 2012, their largest municipal client decided to put their feet to the fire.

Due to the need for more innovative and adaptable project management, they opened up a competitive RFP process to the market.

Umapi and Horn realized they needed to pull out all the stops to keep this client since it accounted for a significant percentage of their annual revenue.

A major pillar in landing the contract was to deliver a stellar proposal that would impress every person in the decision process by answering every question and highlighting the benefits that Yamabian Horn brought to the table as their civil engineering firm for 21 years. This was a concern to Yamobihorn since many of the decision makers were new to the city staff.

The challenge in creating robust proposals was that they had very little content to pull from regarding their capabilities and skills. It had to be drafted from interviews with the principals and key project managers.

To compound the challenge, the deadline for delivery of the completed proposal was only three weeks away.

Over the following three weeks we were able to create a comprehensive 32 page proposal that not only highlighted the firm's talent and the investment in technology they had made, but was also presented in the form of an impressive full color saddle stitch book.

The decision makers at the city were impressed with the entire approach and awarded Imami and Horn the contract for the next three years, amounting to a seven figure contract.

To generate further benefit from the effort, we took the comprehensive proposal and repurposed it into various templates to use for other RFPS and RFQ submissions. The result was a proven template that has led to success in over 70% of the projects they have pursued since.

It has not only saved Y and H staff time and effort, but has resulted in a steady flow of new projects and new relationships that they can leverage going forward.

If you'd like help creating a proposal template that wins, go to BBG LI Proposals Action Steps Just like everything else we've covered to improve your sales process, you need to start by first defining what you're currently doing, so write out the steps you take prospects through to become clients. If you have a star salesperson that closes more than everyone else, have him write out his steps too.

Once you have your process outlined, answer these questions to help assess whether you're achieving the consultative sales objectives. First, are you taking too long to earn the prospect's trust? Second, are you just quoting prices instead of determining the prospect's needs?

Third, are you failing to ask questions that demonstrate your expertise compared to your competitors? And fourth, are you failing to persuade prospects that you can deliver their solution with confidence?

Then, based on your answers above, finish by first, going through the five steps of consultative closing outlined earlier to see where you can add those pieces into your process Second, writing out the new and improved steps to your sales process and third, sharing with your sales team and training on it weekly. Using the outline in the weekly implementation meeting.