How to ask for the sale in sales!

Yeah I know, I know, you’ve probably been taught that if you show someone enough value, uncover the right problem, and qualify early then you won’t have to ask for the business; your customer will naturally come to the decision to buy your product!  

Bullshit.  Here is the thing, if that was true, then your company wouldn’t need you.  The world wouldn’t need sales people.  All companies would do is put out marketing campaigns and sign-up forms or “buy now” buttons on their website and off to the races they’d go!  Lucky for you, people still have to be sold and closed.  So unless your company has some e-commerce platform then you better learn to close if you want to make it long-term in sales.  As I’ve always said, you can make up for a weak discovery with a strong closing but you can’t make up for a weak closing with a strong discovery.  Or, as one of my mentors once put it, “you could take a shit in the middle of your prospect’s office but as long as you reach across at the end and ask for the business, you still have a chance!”

There are two closes you make in sales; time and money.  On every single call, you are going to ask them for either their money or their time.   You are going to ask and they are going to decide whether they are going to give it to you.  This is a very black-and-white situation.  Either they do or they don’t.  Understanding this and owning it will change your sales career forever.

Most sales people never even ask for the business once!

In one of the most jaw-dropping stats in all of the sales, it is estimated that more than 60% of sales people never actually ask for the business at the end.  They dance around it asking need payoff questions or tie downs or, worst of all, “what are your thoughts?”  This is not asking for the business.  

You have to ask for the business if you are going to earn it.  As Ben Affleck says during, what I put down as the best sales speech of all time, his address to the young guns in Boiler Room “ None of this “Debbie the Time Life operator” bullshit. If you can’t learn how to close you better start thinking about another career and I’m deadly serious about that, dead fucking serious. And there is no such thing as a no sale call. A sale is made on every call you make. Either you sell the client some stock or he sells you a reason he can’t. Either way a sale is made, the only question is who is gonna close? You or him? Now be relentless”.  

This is probably going to turn some people off but I promise you that learning to close is one of the biggest separators between the top performers and the rest.  Prospecting, asking great questions, and storytelling; are all vital skills but they are wasted if you never close the customer and ask for their business.  You will lose deals to follow-ups, pricing, competitors, and the status quo.  They are in the market so you must take them out of the market.  

The same goes for their time.  Think about your last calls that ended in a follow-up; how many of those did you have a firm next step booked in with your prospect on the call?  Again, the majority of sales calls end with no commitment!  Either you control the sales process or they do and, the sad fact is, most prospects are far at selling the sales person than vice versa.   This is why so many calls end with no commitment or decision.

Why don’t sales people ask for the business?

1. They don’t believe they need to.  As I’ve stated above, you have to let go of this false belief.  This is something that influencers and marketing people trying to sell their product tell you.  Top sales professionals know you 100% have to ask for the business 100% of the time.
2. They don’t trust they’ve earned the right.  Maybe you have and maybe you haven’t but you still have to ask.  You’ve done the hard work of finding their need and showing them how you can solve it so you just need to ask.  The good news is, if you have missed the mark, they will tell you!
3. They’re insecure.  This goes along with the point directly above but you have to get over this if you are going to make it in sales.  It is uncomfortable.  It is hard.  But, in life, you need to do the hard things and be uncomfortable if you are going to grow and succeed.  
4. They are with the wrong person.  We’ve all done it; you are on the phone with someone that is clearly not the DM and you aren’t sure where to go next so you leave the call open-ended. 
5. They aren’t actually selling they are just waiting for someone to buy.  Stop this.  Stop this now. 
6. They don’t have a strategy.  You must have a pricing, closing and recommending strategy prepared before the call.  
7. They’ve never been trained how to do it.  Which we will tackle here in just a moment.

Benefits of asking for the business

Whether you are asking for the final close or asking for an incremental close of next steps, this allows you to gauge where you and the prospect are in the process.  A few of the benefits to asking for a commitment are:

1. You get the commitment!  Can’t get it if you don’t ask
2. You get an objection.  This is great because it can help you understand your prospect better and address any potential challenges while still on the phone.  There is nothing worse than failing to ask for commitment, thinking you have a deal and then getting an email 2 days later that says “we appreciate your time and really think you have a great product but… “ ouch!
3. You learn about their process.  I’ve had this a million times, I ask for a time or their business and they come back and tell me how they need to do x, y and z that weren’t brought up earlier.  Some of it may be a smokescreen though so check out our paybook  on “Spouse Objection”
4. You get a “no” and your process stops.  Look, I know this stings but better now than in 2 weeks when you’ve committed it up, think you have a shot and are banking on it for your quota.  A no is not a big deal in life or in sales.

How do I ask for the business?

So this is one of my favorite things to train on and is probably one of the easiest things you’ll ever learn in sales.  It is going to sound simple but it will make you a ton of money. Follow this basic framework and you will get more decisions on the call, more chances to handle objections and answer questions and more sales!

Step 1: Tie downs.  Hate this all you want but they work.  If it makes you feel better we can call them “need payoff questions” so it seems more modern and sophisticated.  

You are going to ask two of them.  The first one is to flush out any objections and get an agreement on the value and the second one is to get an agreement on the decision-making process. 

Agreement on Value:

• “When we first spoke, you told me that your goal was X, do you believe this accomplishes that?”
• “If you had this product, do you believe it would help you towards your goal of X?”

Anything like this is just fine.  The purpose of this is to simply understand if they see the value and benefit of what you have covered.  It is quite possible that you get a question or an objection here.  If you do, then back up, cover the objection and re ask.  “Does make you feel more comfortable that this will help you with your goal of X?”  Do this as many times as needed to them to agree.  

Agreement on Decision-Making:

• “So as long as we agree on pricing and term, are you happy to make a decision today?”
• “Is there anything else, besides pricing or term, that would prevent you from making a decision today?”

Hopefully, you would have done an upfront contract but, even if you have, this is the last off ramp for your prospect so give it to them and listen.  Again, it is perfectly reasonable that they start churning out the excuses at this point and why it is vital you master your objection handling.  They will say things like “I never make a decision on the call” or “I need to consult my chiropractor” or whatever.  If you have done your work leading up to this call and an upfront contract you can be comfortable this is bullshit.  If it’s not, then you need to slow down and communicate with your prospect.  It may be bullshit but it also may be that you are about to close too soon.  

Your prospects that are bought in and ready to make the call will say “yes” sometimes but more often say something more playful or joking like “well I guess that just all comes down to how good the offer is…”  You are about to make a sale!

Step 2: Stop selling.  At this point, you have either done the work or you haven’t.  Amateur sales people love to through in their last little value stacks or features.  Your selling is over, now it is time to close.  

Step 3: Present price.  Do this very clearly and as brief as possible.  Again, no reason to go back into pitching mode.  Tell them the numbers or their options in as plain of English and as few of words as possible.  

• “We have 3 different options to chose from.  The beginner at $2,000 , the Pro at $5,000  and the elite at $5,000.  Each one has a tax of $500 you pay upfront and then requires a 12 month agreement.”

That’s it.  You don’t need to overcomplicate it. 

Step 4: Make your recommendation.  This is your closing argument.  This is all part of your pre call prep and strategy.  You should have this locked at loaded before the call even started.  The key here is to actually give the prospect the best advice based on what you have learned about them during the process.  Nevermind which one gets you to target, your manager pushes or pays you out the most; recommend the one that is actually best for them.  

• “Based on the fact that you have 10 employees that are full time and 3 that are part time and already have a portal for pay statements I recommend you start with the Pro plan.”

Step 5: Close!  

• “I’ll take care of all the details but I say we give it a shot”

That’s it.  That’s all you are going to say.  You’ve done your tie downs.  You’ve given them their options and you’ve made your recommendation.  That is all the more of a close you need.  It may seem simple and straightforward but I promise you, that wording has made me more money as a rep, a trainer and a coach than any other single other line I’ve learned.

Step 6: Shut the hell up!  This is the classic “whoever speaks first loses” so let them have their moment to think, take a deep breath and calm down.  

You will get one for three responses:

1. A yes.  This is rare.  Like maybe will happen 5 times in your whole career rare.  
2. A question.  This is a sale!  If you get a question here, then you have a sale.  It means they are thinking about it!  For help on this point, read our Questions vs. Objections blog.
3. A no.  Ok, sorry, better luck next time.  When you get this, and you will, have some dignity about it.  You just went through your whole process and they said “no”.  Pack it up, it’s over.  Learn from it and better luck next time but don’t start pushing your prospect.  They gave you their answer.  Be an adult and expect it.  

And there you have it, how to close like a boss!  So, before your next call take this out and use the steps above to prepare to ask for the business.  If you do that, you are already ahead of 60% of the sales people out there!