The Psychology of Closing the Sale
You must have done something right, Mr. or Ms. Travel Professional. Your marketing must be working. The prospective client called and asked to meet with you. You chose a great meeting location, maybe your agency office, maybe a coffee shop. You dressed the part, you rehearsed the meeting and prepared well. You made a terrific presentation. Now it’s time to ask for the prospective client’s business. You can feel the tension. Why is closing so difficult?
Because we make it difficult. Is there any possibility shifting from a transactional model to a relationship/consulting model will remove some of the pressure of “the close?” The psychology of “closing” is the topic of many, if not most, sales training seminars. Not surprisingly, it is the point of the buying process where many agents have the most difficulty. |
We go into many presentations with all of the wrong expectations. We fear rejection. We worry that our research might not be extensive enough, that they client did not tell us everything. We felt we were on a different wavelength with this particular client. The client seemed hesitant, maybe even argumentative. Not only that, but we need this sale. It’s July and we are already behind our budget. Where’s that turnaround everyone’s been talking about?
It is not surprising that the idea of the Close is so fraught with anxiety.
Traditional sales looks at the Close as the culmination of an array of sales “techniques” that leads the client to say “Yes,” if properly executed. It is the penultimate moment of every sales effort resulting from a “sense of urgency” that you create for the client. In traditional sales technique, the Close is the proof that you have done your job well.
The problem with the traditional techniques is severalfold. Firstly, they are inauthentic. Your relationship with clients should not be about manipulating them to do what best serves your mortgage payment schedule. Secondly, consumers today are far more aware, knowledgeable and savvy than were the consumers of ten, twenty and thirty years ago when the classic sales techniques were developed by Xerox, IBM and used car dealers. Consumers can spot an inauthentic, nervous or manipulative sales technique long before it’s out on the table.
Its time to re-evaluate how we view the Close.
What if the Close was not the penultimate moment of every sales effort, but rather a logical conclusion to satisfying the needs of the client? What if the Close happened before the client ever told you what they wanted researched? What if the client made the decision to buy without any pressure from you at all and created their own sense of urgency to avoid missing out on the opportunities you uncovered for him?
Rightly viewed, the close should happen before the presentation ever begins. In an appropriately structured relationship, we are not selling anything, so there is no sale to close. In the relationship paradigm, there is no pressure to buy other than the pressure of the consequences of not buying. When you are a consultant rather than a salesperson, the client closes the buy, not you, and they do so in a very scheduled and predictable manner.
Nirvana, right? We'll see.
Closing the Client's Needs
It is not surprising that the idea of the Close is so fraught with anxiety.
Traditional sales looks at the Close as the culmination of an array of sales “techniques” that leads the client to say “Yes,” if properly executed. It is the penultimate moment of every sales effort resulting from a “sense of urgency” that you create for the client. In traditional sales technique, the Close is the proof that you have done your job well.
The problem with the traditional techniques is severalfold. Firstly, they are inauthentic. Your relationship with clients should not be about manipulating them to do what best serves your mortgage payment schedule. Secondly, consumers today are far more aware, knowledgeable and savvy than were the consumers of ten, twenty and thirty years ago when the classic sales techniques were developed by Xerox, IBM and used car dealers. Consumers can spot an inauthentic, nervous or manipulative sales technique long before it’s out on the table.
Its time to re-evaluate how we view the Close.
What if the Close was not the penultimate moment of every sales effort, but rather a logical conclusion to satisfying the needs of the client? What if the Close happened before the client ever told you what they wanted researched? What if the client made the decision to buy without any pressure from you at all and created their own sense of urgency to avoid missing out on the opportunities you uncovered for him?
Rightly viewed, the close should happen before the presentation ever begins. In an appropriately structured relationship, we are not selling anything, so there is no sale to close. In the relationship paradigm, there is no pressure to buy other than the pressure of the consequences of not buying. When you are a consultant rather than a salesperson, the client closes the buy, not you, and they do so in a very scheduled and predictable manner.
Nirvana, right? We'll see.
Closing the Client's Needs
The goal in a consulting relationship is to clarify the client’s thinking. By obtaining commitments from the client each step of the way, there is far less pressure to “Close” the sale. Completion of the buying process becomes the logical conclusion to everything which the client has previously requested and to which they have committed. By spreading the client’s commitments throughout the buying process, pressure is taken off of a single attempt to “close” and both the client and the travel consultant will feel more confident about the decision making process.
|
The first step to an appropriate close of the buying process is to firmly establish a professional relationship based on a clear understanding of the respective roles of travel consultant and client. Once the client has agreed to work within the travel counselor’s framework, it is time to begin exploring the client’s needs. In a highly skilled manner, the travel planner will ask questions about the trip at hand. It is during this conversation that the travel agent seeks to understand and clarify the client’s needs and to also ascertain the client’s commitment to this particular travel plan. Firmly establishing all of the criteria at this early stage of the buying process brings the client closer to a buying decision and can save the travel consultant hours of research.
Recall that in the classic retail paradigm, the consumer controls the relationship. In the consultant paradigm, however, the travel professional directs the course of the relationship. While maintaining an empathy for the needs of the client, the travel counselor expertly assists the client to think about the right issues. Some clients will present a definitive understanding of what they want. Others will be very unstructured in their desires, knowing only that they want to “get away” on a vacation. The task of the travel professional is to guide the client into a more clear understanding of what they desire and need. If details are left ambiguous or unclear, it is an almost certain these same undefined criteria will become obstacles to completing the buying process.
When conducting client interviews, seek to obtain clarity and commitment to detail. If the client is unable to choose definitively between a cruise, a beach vacation or a trip to London, it is far too early to begin intensive research on their behalf. In such instance it is best to direct the client’s thinking to more basic needs inherent in their desire to travel. Is this trip an opportunity to do something the client has always wanted to do? To see someplace new or to return to a familiar destination? To rest and relax or to be actively engaged in a new culture? There is literally a world of possibility and options and a client can lose themselves, and you, in it. Direct their thinking before committing to any serious research. Discover their needs.
Likewise, the matter of budget must be discussed and analyzed, and the client should be directed to make a commitment. Without a very solid understanding of budget prior to research, the odds of completing the buying process on the first go-round diminish significantly. Ask the client about their previous trips and what they spent. Is the trip they are now planning more or less equivalent or do they want to change up their level of accommodation? Remember that clients need an empathetic ear at this juncture. Many will be threatened by the issue of budgets, so couch your questioning in terms of value, desire and past experiences. However, seek to get a commitment.
Each detail of the research request is important to a successful research effort. Sum up your meeting by reviewing each commitment the client has made and gently obtaining a final affirmation of the client’s requests of you. If the skillful travel counselor can get the client to affirm and commit all along the initial interview, then several “mini-closes” will have occurred and research will be more precise and productive and the client closer to completing the buying process. The pressure will be off “the” Close.
Recall that in the classic retail paradigm, the consumer controls the relationship. In the consultant paradigm, however, the travel professional directs the course of the relationship. While maintaining an empathy for the needs of the client, the travel counselor expertly assists the client to think about the right issues. Some clients will present a definitive understanding of what they want. Others will be very unstructured in their desires, knowing only that they want to “get away” on a vacation. The task of the travel professional is to guide the client into a more clear understanding of what they desire and need. If details are left ambiguous or unclear, it is an almost certain these same undefined criteria will become obstacles to completing the buying process.
When conducting client interviews, seek to obtain clarity and commitment to detail. If the client is unable to choose definitively between a cruise, a beach vacation or a trip to London, it is far too early to begin intensive research on their behalf. In such instance it is best to direct the client’s thinking to more basic needs inherent in their desire to travel. Is this trip an opportunity to do something the client has always wanted to do? To see someplace new or to return to a familiar destination? To rest and relax or to be actively engaged in a new culture? There is literally a world of possibility and options and a client can lose themselves, and you, in it. Direct their thinking before committing to any serious research. Discover their needs.
Likewise, the matter of budget must be discussed and analyzed, and the client should be directed to make a commitment. Without a very solid understanding of budget prior to research, the odds of completing the buying process on the first go-round diminish significantly. Ask the client about their previous trips and what they spent. Is the trip they are now planning more or less equivalent or do they want to change up their level of accommodation? Remember that clients need an empathetic ear at this juncture. Many will be threatened by the issue of budgets, so couch your questioning in terms of value, desire and past experiences. However, seek to get a commitment.
Each detail of the research request is important to a successful research effort. Sum up your meeting by reviewing each commitment the client has made and gently obtaining a final affirmation of the client’s requests of you. If the skillful travel counselor can get the client to affirm and commit all along the initial interview, then several “mini-closes” will have occurred and research will be more precise and productive and the client closer to completing the buying process. The pressure will be off “the” Close.
Let’s begin by simply acknowledging that by its very nature, the retail paradigm creates an adversarial atmosphere. The consumer is the buyer wanting to pay as little as possible, the retailer is the seller, wanting to charge as much as possible. As consumers, we are taught to be wary of merchants, to haggle (think Monty Python and The Life of Brian), bargain and shop around. Little wonder that almost every travel professional has had the experience of doing research for a client and them having the client take the research and book elsewhere. If the retail paradigm prevails, there is little way to reduce the pressure to “Close” a sale.
Consider the virtues of the consultant paradigm wherein the travel professional is not a retailer, but the buyer’s coach. Inherently this is a better model. Nevertheless, both travel consultant and client have to disabuse themselves of the vestiges of the retail paradigm that will early in the relationship continue to hang about. The client will be worried that the travel agent uses only preferred suppliers that will pay a high commission at the client’s expense. The client will be certain there is a “better deal” out there somewhere and that the travel consultant is not making a full disclosure. The travel consultant has his or her own set of concerns. The client has unreasonable expectations and expects to pay too little. The client seems argumentative and wary. This deal probably won’t close and the client will go elsewhere and book. |
The professional travel consultant has to very deliberately drive-out these negative energies from the relationship by directly addressing them and then checking for their reappearance at various stages of the buying process. The travel agent who hopes to move client relationships to a paradigm of consulting must work on establishing trust as the foundation of each client interaction. Until both travel counselor and client trust each other, concerns will linger. Openly addressing concerns and showing empathy with the client’s apprehensions is absolutely essential to the process of building a solid relationship. The beginning of trust originates from the authenticity and empathy of the travel agent, as displayed in personal demeanor, marketing collateral and testimonials from others. In the presence of trust, there is no pressure to close or to buy, only the excitement and anticipation of travel.
Bringing it to a close
For many travel agents, the simple step of asking for a decision from the client is the most difficult part of the sales process. The hesitation many agents feel is an understandable desire to not appear overly aggressive. Yet, a good travel consultant understands the value of the travel to the client of the travel experience and sincerely wants the client to accept the agent’s recommendations.
It is important not to let the time you have put into your research or with the client pull you from keeping your client in the center of the transaction. When you act as a facilitator of the transaction, when you are literally on the “same side of the table” as your client, your concern for their well being will be communicated and they will have a greater confidence in the entire sales process.
Be direct in your approach. As always, it helps to be speaking with all of the decision makers at the same time. In the case of a couple, both husband and wife will ideally be present so that the decision is not delayed.
How to close? Simply indicate the steps necessary to book the travel and ask the client when they would be prepared to put down a deposit to hold the booking. Then, wait for an answer. It really is that simple. If you have properly prepared the ground work using the principles we have discussed, both you and the client are already at a point where decisions have been made and only the smallest of hesitations should be left to obstruct any finality.
Should the clients hesitate at this juncture, there is typically a hidden objection. If so, your job is far from done. Directly address any concern the client might be holding in reserve. If the client asks for additional time, remind the client of the dangers inherent in waiting – prices can change. If there is the opportunity to cancel without penalty, remind the client of this fact. If the booking can be placed on a hold, the agent can offer this as an option, carefully stressing the necessity of completing the transaction at the appropriate time.
Be direct, authentic, and ask the client for a decision by explaining the steps to make a firm booking. If you keep your clients’ interest at the center of the transaction, you will find yourself with more clients traveling.
Bringing it to a close
For many travel agents, the simple step of asking for a decision from the client is the most difficult part of the sales process. The hesitation many agents feel is an understandable desire to not appear overly aggressive. Yet, a good travel consultant understands the value of the travel to the client of the travel experience and sincerely wants the client to accept the agent’s recommendations.
It is important not to let the time you have put into your research or with the client pull you from keeping your client in the center of the transaction. When you act as a facilitator of the transaction, when you are literally on the “same side of the table” as your client, your concern for their well being will be communicated and they will have a greater confidence in the entire sales process.
Be direct in your approach. As always, it helps to be speaking with all of the decision makers at the same time. In the case of a couple, both husband and wife will ideally be present so that the decision is not delayed.
How to close? Simply indicate the steps necessary to book the travel and ask the client when they would be prepared to put down a deposit to hold the booking. Then, wait for an answer. It really is that simple. If you have properly prepared the ground work using the principles we have discussed, both you and the client are already at a point where decisions have been made and only the smallest of hesitations should be left to obstruct any finality.
Should the clients hesitate at this juncture, there is typically a hidden objection. If so, your job is far from done. Directly address any concern the client might be holding in reserve. If the client asks for additional time, remind the client of the dangers inherent in waiting – prices can change. If there is the opportunity to cancel without penalty, remind the client of this fact. If the booking can be placed on a hold, the agent can offer this as an option, carefully stressing the necessity of completing the transaction at the appropriate time.
Be direct, authentic, and ask the client for a decision by explaining the steps to make a firm booking. If you keep your clients’ interest at the center of the transaction, you will find yourself with more clients traveling.