Welcome to article 20 of our 20-article series on Becoming An All-Star Sales Person.  Today, we’ll focus on asking for referrals as part of the Post-Close.

In previous articles, we’ve talked about the first two aspects of the Post-Close, confirm the details of the agreement and eliminate buyer’s remorse.  Today, we’ll focus on asking for referrals and of course, the best time to ask for referrals is right after you’ve completed the sale.  After all, your buyer has just bought and his level of enthusiasm has got to be at a high point.

Why ask for referrals?  Three reasons, referrals are easiest to do business with because you’re already somewhat pre-sold.  Second, your client is less likely to cancel if he gives you referrals.  Third, you consolidate your relationship with your new client.

How to ask for referrals?  If you just ask someone to recommend another person that you might be able to do business with, chances are, he’ll go blank because he’s looking at the whole universe and it’s just too big!  Therefore, you can help him break his world down into specific segments by asking questions like, “Are you a member of any business group?  Are you a member of any social organization?  Are you a member of any sports group?”

After your questions are answered, you can continue, “The last time you were at a meeting, who there could use my services?  What would you say to him if you were me?  Would you mind calling him to let him know that I’ll be calling?  If he doesn’t want to call his friend, you can ask, “Can I use your name?”

By asking in this manner, you’re helping your client focus on whom you can be of help to.  Then he’s giving you guidance on how to approach his friend.  Next, if he calls his friend, you’re more likely to get through to him and if he declines, at least you can use his name most of the time.

What you’ve just done—you’ve learned a new way to ask for referrals by breaking down his world into specific segments, you make it easier for him to think of people to refer you to.  Use this principle professionally or personally and get better results in all of your persuasion efforts.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this article and want to review the other 19, you can find them on my blog, www.stanleyfidel.com/blog. If you would like to watch videos about specific parts of the selling cycle please visit my website, www.stanleyfidel.com/free and I’ll send you a link to receive them, absolutely free.  Goodbye and good selling.

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Welcome to article number 19 of our 20-article series on Becoming An All-Star Sales Person.  Today, we’ll continue with our conversation regarding the Post-Close.

Remember, there are three reasons for doing a post close.  One—you confirm the details of your agreement.  Two—you eliminate buyer’s remorse and prevent cancellations, and three—you ask for referrals.  Today, we’ll discuss number two—eliminating buyer’s remorse.

It’s very important obviously to eliminate buyer’s remorse.  Certainly, it’s discouraging and demoralizing when a customer or client cancels his agreement.

A very powerful tool to avoid cancellation is to put your client in the future, happy with his decision using the three major senses—seeing, hearing and feeling.  This is based on discoveries in psychology called Neuro-linguistic programming or NLP.

Here is an example of how you can eliminate buyer’s remorse by putting your client in the future.  “When you see your first quarterly report and we talk about it, you will feel really good about what you’re doing today.”

What I’m doing is sealing the agreement by guiding my client to feel good in the future, after he sees his first quarterly report and we speak about it.  By associating his future good feelings with what he is doing today, I helped seal the agreement.

Here is another example of putting the client in the future, “When you see the road from your driver’s seat in this new car, and you talk to your wife about how good you feel driving it, you’re both going to be very happy about what you’re doing today!”

It’s important to use all three major senses because you don’t know which is the dominant one that your client uses to take in reality.  Remember that every person has a primary sense that he uses for perceiving outside world.  I get into that in more detail in my book, “All Star Selling.”

What you’ve just done—you’ve learned another important part of the post-close by guiding your client regarding how he will feel in the future.  Using the three major senses of hearing, seeing and feeling touches all the important bases.  Use this principle professionally or personally and help more people keep their agreements.

If you have received worthwhile information from this article and want more of the same, look over the rest of my blog www.stanleyfidel.com/blog.  If you would also enjoy watching videos that share similar information, visit www.stanleyfidel.com/free and we’ll send you links to receive 20 free videos on various facets of the selling process.  Good-bye and good selling.

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Welcome to this 18^th article of my series of 20 on closing the sale and Becoming An All-Star Salesperson.  Today, we’ll talk about what you do after you complete the sale—the post close!

The post close is what you say after you have successfully closed the sale.  There are three parts to it: confirm the details so that your buyer will know what to expect and won’t have any unrealistic expectations; eliminate buyer’s remorse so there’s no cancellation; and ask for referrals.  Today, we’re going to talk about confirming the details.

When you confirm the details of your agreement, you clarify what happens next.  This avoids any misunderstandings and you provide realistic expectations, so your buyer will know exactly what to expect.

Here is what I mean by confirming the details.  Let’s use the financial adviser example.  “So I will handle setting up your account and transferring the funds.  One of our managers will call you in a few days to discuss your goals and your risk tolerance and I’ll call you next week to review what we’ve done to date.”

By confirming the details in this manner, you take the mystery out of what happens next.  Your buyer knows what to expect and will be more comfortable dealing with you.

What you’ve just done: you’re becoming aware of what to do after you close the sale.  You’ve learned to post close by confirming the details.  This avoids misunderstandings so use this principle professionally or personally and get better results in all of your persuasion efforts.

If you’ve gotten some value from reading this article and want to review more that are similar, just check my blog www.stanleyfidel.com/blog. More are being added all the time.

If you also enjoy watching videos, you can have my entire series of 20 videos absolutely free, just go to my website, www.stanleyfidel.com/free and I’ll send you a link for the whole series.  Goodbye and good selling.

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Welcome to article 17 of our 20-article series on Becoming An All-Star Sales Person.  We are going to continue our discussion of closing the sale today.

I call this the non-close close because there is no effort made to talk your prospect into anything.  Here is how it works.  After you’ve finished your presentation summary, you ask a simple direct question.  This puts the burden of making a decision on your prospect’s shoulders and it’s best used with decisive controlling type people.

The non-close close is like the other closes we’ve talked about in one major way.  You begin by summarizing the benefits that your prospect liked.  “You liked the idea of having a professional manage your investments.  You also really liked all the time that you’ll be saving.  What would you like to do next?”

The non-close close is one that I learned from Tom Smoot, one of New York Life’s most successful agents.  You remind the prospect of what he liked about your presentation and then you leave it up to him.  What would you like to do next?

What you’ve just done—you’ve learned to close a sale by summarizing what your decisive prospect told you he liked about your presentation.  Your confident question puts the burden squarely on his shoulders without conveying any attempt to sell him on what he has told you himself.  Use this principle professionally or personally and get better results with people who are decisive.

If you’ve learned something from reading this article and would like to read similar ones regarding other facets of the sales process, visit my blog www.stanleyfidel.com/blog.  You will find many others there.

If you also enjoy learning from videos and want to have the entire series of 20 videos on closing the sale, absolutely free, just go to my website, www.stanleyfidel.com\free and I’ll send you a link for the whole series.  Goodbye and good selling.

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Welcome to article 16 of our 20-article series on Becoming An All-Star Sales Person.  In this article, we continue our discussion of closing the sale.

The Minor Point Close is a variation on the basic assumptive close.  Like the basic close, you start out acting as if you expect a yes and you present one or two benefits that your prospect liked.

Here is where it becomes a little bit different.  You ask a minor point question that your prospect would need to answer if he had already said yes to the major question of buying your product or service.

In this example of the Minor Point Close, let us continue using our previous context of the financial adviser.  “You like the idea of having a professional manage your investments.  You also really like all the time you will be saving.  Do you want to do the asset transfer yourself or do you prefer that we handle the paperwork for you?”

If your prospect answers the minor point question regarding who will handle the paperwork, he has bought your proposal.  By choosing one of the minor alternatives he has agreed to the major question.

Let’s summarize the minor point close.  It relies on a confident tone of voice.  You must convey positive expectancy.  Ask your prospect a minor question that would need to be answered once he made the major decision to buy.  You are however, asking him the minor question first instead.  If he answers, he has bought!

What you’ve just done: you’ve learned to close a sale by assuming a yes and confidently asking a minor question for it.  Your positive expectant tone of voice is what makes this happen.  Use this principle professionally and personally and get better results in all of your persuasion efforts.

If you like what you’ve read and would also like to watch our 20-video series regarding closing the sale and Becoming an All-Star Sales Person absolutely free, just go to my website, www.stanleyfidel.com/free and I’ll send you a link for the whole series.  Goodbye and good selling.

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Here is #15 of our 20-article series about Becoming An All-Star Salesperson.  Today, we’ll talk about closing.  If you can’t close, everything else is for naught.  Your preparation, your approach, your probe, your presentation counts for nothing unless you are able to close the sale.

In this article, we’ll discuss the basic assumptive close, which consist of one non-verbal element and two verbal ones.

One: act as if you expect a yes.  This is your non-verbal!

Two: present one or two benefits that your prospect liked.  This is verbal.

Three: ask an alternate question either one of which. when answered means yes!  This is another verbal!

I’m going to set the stage by summarizing the presentation that we talked about last time.  “Remember, this all started because being your own financial adviser takes a lot of time, research and expertise.  Hiring a professional money management consultant solves the problem and gets you better results by using our professional processes that I just described.”

Now, here is the basic assumptive close.  “You like the idea of having a professional manage your investments.  You also really liked all the time that you’ll be saving.  Do you want us to manage all your assets or do you prefer to begin with half of them?”

The basic assumptive close relies on a confident tone of voice.  That’s the non-verbal component.  You have to convey your positive expectancy and remind the prospect of what he liked about your presentation.  Those are the important benefits to him.

What you’ve just done—you’ve learned to close the sale by assuming a “yes” and confidently asking for it.  Your positive, expectant tone of voice is what makes this happen.  Use this principle professionally or personally and be more persuasive with everyone you know.

If you liked what you’ve just read and want the to review all 20 articles about Becoming an All-Star Salesperson absolutely free, just go to my website, www.stanleyfidel.com\blog and you’ll have access to the whole series.  Goodbye and good selling!

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This is my 14^th article of our series of 20 on closing the sale and Becoming an All-Star Salesperson.  Today, we complete the presentation portion of the sales call.

There are four parts to making a good presentation.  One—introduce the problem or need; two—tell your approach to the solution; three—give your specific solution; and four—summarize what you say.

Today, we’ll focus on part four—the summary.  In the previous three videos, we introduced the problem that you intend to solve.  We pretended that you’re a financial adviser talking to someone who manages all of his own investments.  “Last time we spoke, we mentioned that you are your own financial adviser.  This takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of research and it takes a lot of expertise.”

Then we gave our overall approach to the problem that we intend to solve.  “So the solution that we have to this problem is simply to hire a professional money manager to handle your investments.  This saves you a lot of time.  The research you need gets done more efficiently and effectively and you utilize professional expertise.”

Then we gave our specific solution.  “Here’s why it is to your advantage to retain our money management consulting service to simplify and professionalize the investment management process.  For an inclusive fee, our company will define your objectives, custom tailor an asset allocation plan for your risk tolerance, monitor and review performance, monitor and compare your investment manager against the alternative managers, provide a full time financial consultant to answer your questions and recommend the options.  Of course, we’ll implement all of the transactions.”

You then finish up your presentation by summarizing what you said.  “Remember, this all started because being your own financial adviser  takes a lot of time, a lot of research and a lot of expertise.  So hiring a professional money management consultant solves the problem and gets you better results by using our professional processes that I just described.”  Incidentally, this is a great time to pause this video and write your own summary down.

What you’ve just done: you’ve learned to summarize your solution by repeating the problem, your general approach to solving that problem or need, and your specific answer.  This reminds your prospect of the context of his problem and your solution.  You can use this principle professionally or personally and you’ll get better results in all of your persuasion efforts.

If you’ve learned something from this video and want the complete series of 20 videos on closing the sale and Becoming an All-Star Salesperson, absolutely free, just go to my website, www.stanleyfidel.com/free.  Goodbye and good selling.

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Welcome to article 13 of our 20-article series on Becoming An All-Star salesperson.  Today, we’ll continue our discussion of the sales presentation.

Here are the four components of the presenting part of your sales call.  One—introduce the problem or need, two—tell your approach to the solution, three—give your specific solution, and four—summarize what you say.

Today, we’ll focus on the third component—your specific solution. In the previous two articles, we introduced the problem that you intend to solve.  We pretended that you’re a financial adviser talking to someone who manages all of his own investments.  “The last time we spoke, you mentioned that you are your own financial adviser.  This takes a lot of time.  It takes a lot of research and it takes a lot of expertise.”

Then we gave our overall conceptual approach to the problem that we intend to solve.  “The solution that we have to this problem is simply to hire a professional money manager to handle your investments.  This saves you a lot of time.  The research that you need gets done more efficiently and effectively and you utilize professional expertise.”

Next, we give our specific solution.  “Retain our money management consulting service to simplify and professionalize the investment management process for one all-inclusive fee.  Our company will define your objectives, custom tailor an asset allocation plan for your risk tolerance, monitor and review performance.  We will also monitor and compare your investment manager against alternative managers and provide a full-time financial consultant to answer your questions and recommend the options, and of course we’ll execute all of the trades.”

By the way, this is a great time for you to apply this information to your business, and indicate your own specific solution to a client’s problem in your industry.

What you’ve just done is learn to present your solution by beginning with a review of the problem and a general approach to solving that problem or need.  You then introduce your specific solution. This gives your prospect a deeper understanding that your solution is conceptually as well as specifically sound.  This takes a little extra effort, but the results will make it well worth it.

Use this principle professionally or personally and be more persuasive with everyone that you want.

If you like what you’ve read and want to read more articles like this one about closing the sale and Becoming an All-Star Sales Person, just visit my blog www.stanleyfidel.com/blog.  Goodbye and good selling.

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Here is our 12^th article about closing the sale and becoming an All-Star Sales Person.  This series has 20 individual pieces about selling faster and better.

In this essay we continue our discussion about creating an irresistible presentation in your sales call.  There are four parts to a successful sales presentation.  One—introduce the problem or need, two—tell your  conceptual approach to the solution, three—giveyour specific solution and four—summarize what you said.

Presenting Your Conceptual Solution

Today, we’ll focus on the second phase: presenting your conceptual approach to the solution.  To put this in context, let us use the problem that we introduced in the previous article.  “The last time we spoke, you mentioned that you are your own financial adviser.  This takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of research and it takes a lot of expertise.  Okay, this is the problem we will address.”

Next we tell our conceptual approach to solving this problem.  “The solution that we have to this problem is simply to hire a professional money manager to handle your investments.  This saves you a lot of time.  The research you need gets done more efficiently and effectively and you utilize professional expertise.”

Notice this is merely a conceptual rather than a detailed approach to the solution.  You have simply provided an overall model for dealing with your client’s need. The detailed solution comes next.

What you’ve just done: you’ve learned to begin your presentation by discussing your overall approach to the current situation problem or need.  This gives your prospect a conceptual grasp of how you will solve his problem.  Use this principle professionally or personally and you’ll get better results in all of your persuasion efforts.

Want More

If you have gotten value from this brief article and want more similar information, you may see our series of 20 free videos.  These are all about closing sales and becoming an all-star sales person.  To get your 20 videos, just go to my website www.stanleyfidel.com\free and we’ll send you a link right away.  Goodbye and good selling.

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This is my eleventh article in my series of 20 on closing the sale and Becoming an All-Star Sales Person.  Today, we’ll begin our discussion of how to make an irresistible presentation.

There are four components to making a strong presentation.  The first is —introduce the problem or need; two—tell your conceptual approach to the solution; three—give your specific solution and four—summarize what you said.  In other words, tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them and then tell them what you told them.

Today, we’ll focus on introducing the problem or need.  This is often neglected.  Don’t assume that your prospect has a clear understanding of what you’ve discussed previously.  You need to remind him and bring him onto the same page that you’re on.  Here is an example, “The last time we spoke, you mentioned that you are your own financial adviser.  This takes a lot of time.”  It takes a lot of research and it takes a lot of expertise.  So, you’ve just summarized or reintroduced the problem that you will be solving.

What you’ve just done, you’ve learned the importance of beginning your presentation by clearly summarizing the current situation, problem or need instead of just rushing into your solution.  This puts you on the same page with your prospect.  Use this principle professionally and personally and be more persuasive with everyone you know.

If you’ve enjoyed this article about closing the sale and would like to watch my series of 20 free videos on various, vital aspects of selling, just to go my website www.stanleyfidel.com/free and I’ll send you a link so you can receive the entire series.  Goodbye and good selling.

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