Lessons From Zig And Finding Your Style

Closing Starts At First Contact

Show Up, Follow Up, Be Credible

Consistency Builds Trust And Relationships

Purpose: Solve Customer Problems

Singles Over Home Runs In B2B

Ask, Then Stay Silent

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Welcome to the Toilet Paper Salesman Podcast. My name's Mike Murarki, and I'm really glad you're with us today. We're going to be talking today about closing the sale. Now, closing the sale is something that creates in some sales reps, especially new ones, some anxiety. I guess I'll start off by asking a question. What is closing the sale anyway? What is it that is about closing the sale? And in my opinion, closing the sale is simply just an agreement to move forward. In the sales process, anytime you get an agreement to move forward, you're closing. So if you contact somebody, they agree to meet with you, they need pricing, they want samples, they want another meeting. That's closed. Closing is a step-by-step process, and we're going to talk more about that process today and what it takes to close sales. So when I was a younger rep, I was having a lot of success and I was really into self-improvement and still am. I went to see Zig Ziggler. Now, Zig Ziggler, if you don't know him, was an iconic sales trainer, very successful sales professional, one of the top sales trainers out there in the day. And I went to see Zig live. So I'm watching Zig, and Zig is talking about all these fancy closes that he has and everything. And boy, I felt pretty terrible because I didn't close that way. It wasn't, I just couldn't do it like Zig. And now I know the reason why I couldn't do it like Zig is because I wasn't Zig, and Zig did things the way he does them, and I am the way I am. And you know, as I thought about it, I said to myself, wow, I can't close like Zig. And feeling bad about myself, I realized that, you know what, I'm growing 30% a year. I'm opening accounts left and right. And I had been doing that for a while. I must be doing something right. The goal is in any of these trainings, in my podcast episodes, when you go see a sales trainer, you can never do it like them. Don't get down on yourself. You can only do it like you. But if you can take one thing out of that presentation, if you can take one story or one tip or trick and take it and apply it to your business, then it's going to make a difference. And that's really what I've learned through the years is anytime I read a book, anytime I listen to a motivational speaker, anytime I listen to a sales trainer, no matter what, I'm always looking for one thing I could take and apply to my business. And that's how you learn and grow and progress in your business. Don't feel bad about yourself that you can't close away, or if the way that I'm talking about closing, if you can't close the way I close, of course, because you're not me, you're yourself and you have to find your own style. And the only way you can do that is by experimenting and trying different things and taking the things that you learn and applying them to your business. When does a close start? A close starts from the moment you contact a prospect, whether it's by email, whether it's on social media, whether it's by a phone call. The closing process starts from the beginning. So it's not this big thing at the end, it's not a big home run. It's singles that you hit along the way in the process that you follow that take you to the close. Let's think about, so let's talk about what makes a successful salesperson. 50% is showing up and following up. If you show up and follow up, you're 50% of the way there. Most salespeople don't do that. If you're likable and credible, that's like another 25%. So now show up, follow-up, likable, credible, 75% of the way there. The final 25% is your sales skills, your product knowledge, you know, all the other intangible soft skills that you bring to the table. It's a very simple thing. Show up, follow-up, likable, credible, and you will get sales. That you will be able to take them down the process of opening a deal or closing a deal and getting sales. That really all depends on building relationships. And I have a podcast episode that talks deeper about this. And you build relationships based off of consistency. Consistency is the number one key in getting someone from point A to point B. If you call in a new account, you've got to be consistent because consistency creates confidence. Confidence turns into trust, and trust turns into a relationship. You can't get to a relationship until you have consistency. You build consistency through the sales process. And as you're building that consistency, then you're gaining the confidence and the trust of that person, and then you get to build a relationship. The other key thing is when you're thinking about closing the sales, what's your purpose anyway? What are you doing? Why are you even getting up in the morning to sell what you're selling? The answer to that question has to be in their world, not in your world. The purpose in my world is to help my customers be successful, whatever that is for them. And if that's my goal, which it is, is to help my customers be successful, what does that look like? And it looks like me trying to understand their business, trying to understand where they need help, taking the tool belt that I have and taking and applying that to their business. That all starts with asking good questions, being more interested in the business. That way you're able to gain the right information so that you can apply the solution to help them. And that's ultimately what leads you to a sale. If you're able to ask good questions, understand the business, apply a solution, then customer will automatically move forward because you're solving a problem for them. It's really very simple when you look at it that way. So the key is closing and closing a sale, it's consistency. Singles, single, single, single, single, and then you'll get the sale. Home runs don't happen very often. It's very rare that you're going to walk into a customer who's going to shovel all this business over to you. As a matter of fact, if that happens, you need to be concerned because there's probably a reason why they would want to do that. Most times, business is built step by step through a process of building trust and confidence and a relationship. It's not built by them shoveling all their business over to you in one fell swoop. Unless you're selling something like real estate or cars, but that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about business-to-business sales. We're talking about a relationship-based sales process. When you do ask the question, hey, when can we get started here? What does this look like for you? What's your timeline? That question, when you ask it, the most important thing is to remain silent once you ask that question. If you are a salesperson, and this has happened many times to many salespeople, most of us who are in the business, you ask a question, you stay silent for a little bit, and then you speak first. Now you have to start all over again. If you allow the silence to continue and you allow the customer to answer the question or not answer the question, either way, they've got to be the first one to speak at that point because then you'll find out. Yeah, sure. Um, you know, two weeks I'll probably get started. Why don't you give me a call in a week and we'll put everything together or send me the credit application, we'll get started and we'll go from there. Uh, or they'll say, I just don't think I'm interested right now. Now, if if that happens and they say, I'm not interested right now, one of the key things that you want to do is to ask them a question. Other than what you're telling me, whether it's price objection, or first question would be, why are you not interested in buying from me? And then whatever reason they give you, what you want to do is understand, other than what you're telling me, my price is too high. Is there anything else I'm missing? Is there anything else you would like to meet address? Are there any other concerns that you have beyond the price? Because that's the real reason. Sometimes they'll throw a price objection at you, but there's another reason why they're not buying from you that they're not telling you about. So it's important to understand a full reason as to why a customer wouldn't buy, and then you're able to address that concern. And once you address that concern, then again, you're back to the, hey, what does it look like? When can we get started? Or using a different way, open that relationship because you might call it closing sale, but it actually is the start of a relationship. You're opening a relationship. When you open a relationship, you want to make sure that you're always in gratitude to the customer. You always want to be grateful for their business, grateful that they put their trust in you, grateful that they're giving you the opportunity, because that is the key. Once you start taking for granted a customer's business, that's your first foot out the door. Never, ever, ever take a customer's business for granted. You've always have to maintain a mindset of gratitude for that customer because every time that customer places an order with you, they're trusting that you're going to be able to deliver to them and you're going to be able to give them the service that they need in order to be a successful business. Now that works both ways. The customer also has to keep up their end of the bargain and pay their bill. If they're not paying their bill, if they're not being a good customer, then you, as the owner of your business, as the salesperson, have to go in and talk to that customer and talk them through that. Say, hey, we're holding up our end of the bargain. We're doing everything that we're supposed to do. How do we get you to pay your bill on time? Very important conversation. In order to have a long-term relationship with a customer, you have to be able to have those types of conversations. It's all about gratitude. It's all about hitting singles. It's all about developing strong relationships throughout the organization. If you're doing those and you're following the steps and you're being consistent, those are the keys to you opening business and maintaining significant relationships. That's all I've got for today. I hope this helped. Who says selling toilet paper isn't glamorous? Thanks a lot and have a great day.