Kevin Ward argues there's no single best sales close and rejects hard-closing tactics. Instead, focus on what the client wants, ask questions to find their motivation, then inspire them to say yes by communicating confidently. Pressure doesn't work; empathy and listening do.
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What is the best sales close that there is? And some of you are not going to like this answer. There is no best sales close. In fact, the whole idea of closing one creates resistance for most people. And you as a salesperson probably know that now. Some of you are like, you know, you were taught that you needed to learn the hard how to close, and you were taught you need to close at least seven times. You were taught to be a hardcore closer, to be the jackhammer. You watched Glengarry Glen Ross and you watched Alec Baldwin, you know, tell him coffee is for closers and beat the crap out of them. And you learned that from somebody told you that you need to be like him if you want to be successful in sales. And when I watched Glengarry Glen Ross and they told me to go watch that, I watched it. I'm like, that guy's a jerk. Why in the world would I ever want to be like that? He is exactly what in the movie, he is exactly the kind of salesperson that gives sales a bad name, that makes everybody not want to talk to you. So what is the best sales Clubs? Because people say, sales trainers say, don't take no for an answer. And I believe that the reality is not don't take no for an answer. The reality is, if you want to be great at leading people to a decision at selling, don't take, period. It's not don't take no, it's that don't take. And what I mean by that is most people, they think about sales as, I'm going to get something from you, I'm going you something, which means I'm going to get money from you by selling you on my stuff, my product, my business, me as your agent, whatever it is. And we have this almost a taking mentality, and that is, I'm going to get something from you because I'm going to close the deal and I'm going to get the listing, I'm going to get the sale. Don't get totally shift here. Because, see, when they say don't take no for an answer, sometimes no is, is the right answer. So if you're a real estate agent and you're talking to a seller, a homeowner, sometimes for them to tell you no, it's the right answer under two circumstances. Number one, if they really aren't motivated to move, okay, they're not motivated to move. They may be interested. They may be thinking about it. They may be interested in how much their house is worth, but they're not really motivated to move. No is the right answer. Because what can you do for them if they're not moving? You don't make any money unless you actually sell their house. And if they're not motivated enough to sell it, then how hard you close never is going to help you succeed because they're not moving. The second reason that no is the right answer is if you're an amateur or if you're a jerk or if you're more interested in yourself than you are in them. If you're not the best one for the job, then for the seller, no is the right answer. So I want to challenge your thinking today. I want to challenge your thinking on this idea of being a hard closer, of closing seven times and so forth, and shift it from closing the deal, closing for the signature, closing from the self change, all of that, to leading people to a decision completely a different step in how you do it that you're not having to. The whole idea of being a hardcore closer to me is. It is the bully approach of sales that you're going to use a bully strategy. I'm going to force. I'm going to back them into a corner, right? I'm going to box them in. And these are phrases that you and I have heard in sales training is the box in technique. We're going to box them in so they don't have any other thing they can do but say yes to you. Now, how would that work if you were trying to win a. If you're trying to win a girl's heart, it doesn't work very well. So how do you shift from this idea of getting get me, get me, get, get, get, get from closing, from forcing people to make a decision to leading them to make a decision that they want to make that serves their best interests and serves you. So there's three things you need to do. First is you is simply a conversation. Have a conversation that focuses on what they want, not what you want. Find out what they want. It's not about what you can do to help them, not yet. It's too early. What is it that they're really looking for? This is just simply a way of connecting with people, listening to them and finding out what it is they want and you actually caring about what it is that they want. Number two is then asking questions to determine their motivation. How badly do they want it? So again, you're talking to a homeowner, they're talking about moving. They definitely want to sell their house. There's motivation. Once I find motivation, now I've got Somebody that I can lead to a decision to hire me. But you start with connecting with them, listening to them, asking questions, and then focusing on their motivation, not yours. So it's not about trying to get a listing. It's trying to find out how you can help them. They need to sell, you can help them do that, you can help them move. And then the third thing is once you, you've identified that they definitely are motivated and they're definitely ready to sell their house, now your job is not to close. Your job is to make their decision easy. Now, the way I describe it is to inspire the hire. People don't like to be closed. They love to be inspired. And I believe strongly that words have energy. And when you go in with this idea of I'm a tough closer, that whole language in your own mind comes across as pushy to them. But when your approach is, my job is to inspire them to want to work with me. My job is to find out what they want, find out how I can help them, make sure they actually want to move, and then to inspire them to want to hire me to help them do it. Because I'm the best at doing it. See, when you, when you care, when you can listen and when you have confidence and when you can communicate in a compelling way that you can deliver them the best results, then for them, the decision just became very, very easy. When you make a decision for someone so simple that they can't say no to you, they don't want to say no to you, they want to say yes to you, they'll say yes to you. That is, in reality, that is the best sales close of all. Where there's no sales, they say yes because they want to. Now, the skill here, the detail is it takes some skills to do that. It takes some mastery to do that. Learning how to communicate. Learning how to communicate what you can do for them in a compelling way that helps them to understand you can do it. But when you take the time to master that, when you show up and you're more interested in them than you, you can always, every time, expect yes. If you like the video, give it a thumbs up, give it a like, make sure you share it and make any comments. I would like to hear your feedback about this whole idea of closing because it's. I think there's just a lot of people thinking a lot of stuff about it. Let me know your thoughts.
