To start off this great Presidents Day here are a couple of excerpts from a good article from Roy Vaden.

1. Closing is a process not an event – Contrary to popular belief closing is not a magical question or a strong-handed argument at the end of a presentation. A close is a question, but closing is a process. It starts at the moment you meet your prospect and happens by developing more and more trust with them based on evidence that you are serving their self-interest and not yours

2. People love to buy but hate to feel sold – At Southwestern Consulting™, we talk often about creating a “buying atmosphere”. A “buying atmosphere” is built by simply by letting your prospect know that it’s okay to tell you “No”. By letting them know it’s okay to say “No”,  you also empower them to be comfortable enough to say, “Yes”. If you are serving people, then you will be okay with hearing no if it isn’t a good fit for them.

3. Closing is a series of incrementally committal questions. Start with lightly committal questions like “Does that make sense?” or “Can you see how that works?” As you move along and see that your prospect is starting to see the value for how what you’re sharing could really improve their life, then ask more intense questions like “Would you be more likely to choose option A or option B?” or “Is there any reason at this point that you wouldn’t move forward?” A great close makes it easy for your prospect to make a decision to move forward by asking questions that help them be comfortable as they make a decision about what is in their best interest.

4. You typically have to ask 5x before someone will tell you yes. It’s not about pressuring people; it’s about understanding that our natural human tendency is to resist change! Even when we know things are good for us, we are naturally resistant to change. On average we find most people will say no at least 4x and you will get them on the 5th try. Part of what makes a great Servant Salesperson is understanding and being great at interpreting when someone is truly not interested and when they know they need to do something but they are afraid to.

5. Closing is a formality. The good news about closing is that if you are genuinely interested in serving someone and not just selling to them in the other steps of the sales cycle, then the close is so casual, so easy and so nonchalant that it basically happens automatically.

6. Your confidence is inversely proportionate to your skill. If you have to ask for the sale an average of 5x but you only know 2 types of closing questions, isn’t that a problem? Yes, it is – for both you and your prospect. Take the time to learn some new closes. Again, it’s not about you having some magic voodoo mind tricks to talk someone into something they don’t want, but it is about you as a professional having the appropriate tools to facilitate the service of comfortably guiding someone to a decision about what is best for them!

7. Closing is about conviction. At the end of the day, closing comes down to you honestly believing that your product will help your client enough in their life that it costs more to live without your product or service than it does to invest in it. If you can convince them of that one idea, then you are going to help. If you can convince them of that one idea, then you are going to help them overcome their natural resistance, you are going to help a lot of people and your ideas will spread far!

For the Full Article 

http://roryvaden.com/blog/7-truths-about-closing-the-sale/?inf_contact_key=9325253548cf0e275027adeb4ca1ebe7758bab6818119450483ef54871af1d85