Brian Tracy's first closing technique: call prospects with a specific benefit hook like "increase sales by 20-30% in 12 months," pitch a short 10-minute meeting, skip the brochure, and keep following up until they commit to a date. He says this approach lands appointments 9 out of 10 times with qualified leads.
Questions this video answers
Increase your sales by 20 to 30% over the next 12 months.
10 minutes.
9 out of 10 times.
Chapters
Number one closing technique begins with getting appointments. Is there anybody here who uses the telephone to get appointments? You notice how difficult and frustrating it is. Many people do not use the telephone because they've been rejected and turned down so many times on the telephone that the very thought of it causes them to be angry and frustrated and tense. So what they do is they find every other way possible to make contacts. And the telephone, of course, is the finest and the fastest way if you know how to use it properly. So in approaching a prospect and using the telephone, the key is this, that the first thing that you say to the prospect, once you have found out who it is, has to be something that breaks preoccupation, grabs attention, and points to the result or benefit of the product. Now, let me give you an example. I used to sell, believe it or not, sales training programs, and I would qualify my prospects and I would call and make appointments, and I found that I could get appointments 9 out of 10 times with qualified prospects using this very simple technique. What I do is, I'd call up and I ask the secretary, I'd say, who is the person who makes the decisions in this area? Who's the person who makes the decisions about sales training for your sales force? They would say, well, that would be Mr. Jones. I'd say, fine. What is his first name, please? Bill Jones. Can I speak to Mr. Jones? I said, hello, Mr. Jones, this is Brian Tracy. How would you like to see a method that would enable you to increase Your sales by 20 to 30% over the next 12 months? Now, if you're speaking to the right person, the question will be aimed at something that is of relevance and something that the other person needs. Now, what do sales managers sit around and think about all day long? Increasing sales, sales being down, sales being up, but increasing sales. When you say, would you like to see a system that will enable you to increase Your sales by 20 to 30% over the next 12 months? The first question or the next question the prospect asks is, what is it? And that's where you go into the close. And when you are telephoning for an appointment, you are telephoning to sell an appointment, not to sell a product. The biggest mistake we make is we go in to start describing our product on the telephone. And the person says, well, no, I'm sorry, I'm not interested. Can't afford, I don't have the time, and so on. So all you do is, you're selling 10 minutes. You say, that's exactly what I want to talk to you about, I need about 10 minutes of your time. I'll show you what I've got and you can judge for yourself if it's what you want. If the person says something like, and I used to hear this, they say, well, how much is it? They don't even know what it is. Have you ever heard that? How much is it? And this is the way you handle that. You say, Mr. Prospect, if it's not exactly what you're looking for, there's no charge at all. Very good. Very good response. Get the price thing out of the way. It's not exactly what you're looking for. It doesn't cost you anything. Then the person says, well, could you tell me a little bit about it? I say, well, that's why I need just 10 minutes of your time. Just 10 minutes. I'll be able to show you what I've got and you can judge for yourself if it's what you're looking for. Now, the person will often now remember this is that good prospects are always busy and hard to get to. Poor prospects are not busy and they're easy to get to. If you call up somebody and you ask for an appointment, they say, sure, come on over anytime. You can be sure the person isn't going to buy anything from you. So you have to be very, very sharp in using the telephone. Now, the person's going to say this. The prospect is going to say this. Well, could you tell me a little bit about it? You say, yes, I would like to, but there's something I have to show you. As soon as you say the word show, you've eliminated the necessity to describe it on the telephone. Person says, well, could you send me something in the mail? I say, I would like to send it to you in the mail, but you know how bad the mails are. Why don't I drop it off personally sometime this afternoon? Now if the person is at all serious, they'll say, okay, drop it off personally. Sometime this afternoon. I'll say, will you be there? Yes, I'll be there. Okay, about 3 o', clock, I'll be in your neighborhood. I'll drop it off personally. Don't mail information. When people say, send me some information in the mail, what they're saying is, go away, I'm not interested. And when you send it to them in the mail, it goes right across the desk and into the wastebasket. If you're going to send things in the mail, what you do is you put it in the envelope, throw it in your own wastebasket. Save yourself a stamp. We make the mistake of thinking we could throw it in the mail and then we're actually making sales. No, we're not making sales. So what you ask for is 10 minutes. And this is the key expression. You be the judge. You decide for yourself if this is what you're looking for. And if you say it in that way, the person will say, well, I don't know, all I need is 10 minutes of your time. And you can judge for yourself because what this does is it says that you'll only be there for a short period of time. You will put no pressure on the person. You'll just show them what you've got. Like an Arab trader in the bazaar lays out their wares. If the person doesn't want to select one, in 10 minutes you'll be gone. Now, I have found that if you ask for 30 minutes, you will have to wait for weeks, maybe forever. If you ask for 10 minutes, you can always be slipped in. Don't make the mistake of doing the old insurance salesman trick, God bless the insurance industry, of saying, how about 10 o' clock today or 2 o' clock tomorrow? This alternative, close on it. Don't do that because it's been used so many times that what it does is it insults the other person. Just say sometime this afternoon or maybe sometime tomorrow. Be very flexible once the person gives you a time. Now this is another thing they do. They say, why don't you call me on Monday and we'll set up an appointment. And what you say to them is this. You say, look, I've got my calendar right here. Is your calendar handy? Dumb question, of course. The person's at their desk, their calendar is handy. You say, let's set up a time right now. How about 10 o' clock Monday morning? Don't allow yourself to be put off with this call me back on Monday nonsense, because it's just another way of them avoiding seeing you. Remember, the very best customers you'll ever have are the ones you're going to have to fight to get in to see. They are the ones who are the best for you. So. So when they try to put you off and they try to avoid you and they try to make excuses, what they're saying is, this may be a very, very good customer and somebody is going to get to that prospect and somebody's going to sell the prospect, it might as well be you. So just be persistent, be polite, be firm, say, look, all you need is 10 minutes of your time. Just 10 minutes will do it. 10 minutes, you'll be able to decide for yourself and just sell 10 minutes. If they ask you about your product or service, say it's too involved to go into on the phone, but it'd just be take 10 minutes and I'll show you what I've got and sell only that. See if you cannot close on the telephone appointments, you can't even get to first base and become good at it if you are shy about using the phone, if you're anxious, if you don't like to use the telephone, it's because you've had frustrating experiences in the past.
