The Executive Sales Coach: Keith Rosen’s Sales Blog and Business Blog On Selling, Leadership, Managing Your Team, Business and Life » closing the sale

In a recent interview, I was asked what companies can do to ‘boost their close ratios’ within the specialty retail market. Here were the questions as well as my responses.

Question: What techniques have you seen work in terms of boosting close ratios within the retail market? Are there any action steps that retail owners need to take to boost their close ratios?

Response: After tracking your sales numbers and closing ratio, you’ll find that you may fit into one of the following scenarios in terms of how much prospecting, marketing and selling you will have to do in order to reach your income goal.

1. You are right on track to reach your sales and income goal.
2. You’re slightly off but can easily adjust your daily routine to compensate.
3. You’ll need to put aside a considerable amount of more time to devote to prospecting. This may require some delegation of responsibilities or taking some other activities, tasks, or projects off your plate that may not serve you best or support your goals.
4. You feel like you just got hit with a two by four because the amount of marketing and selling you need to do in order to reach your income goal is off the charts and unrealistic; even to high to count.

If you fall within the fourth category, do not despair! If you find that you need to spend more hours selling than there are in a day in order to reach your income goal, consider some other alternatives that will decrease your required prospecting time, marketing dollars and time on the floor selling.

1. Improve your selling skills to boost closing percentages. You may want to consider revamping your marketing and selling approach as well as doing an analysis of your own sales acumen and selling skills. After all, if you’re fishing in a lake and everyone else at the lake is catching fish but you aren’t, do you go to a different lake or do you change the bait you’re using! If you are still selling or marketing the way you’ve been doing it or have never been shown the right way to market and sell effortlessly, then you are making it easy for your competition to take your business. Consider it’s time to reach out and get an overhaul or tune up.
2. Increase your profitability/commissions or income per sale.
3. Increase the size of your average sale.
4. Decrease the amount of prospecting or marketing needed to identify one new prospect.
5. Decrease the average time it takes for you to identify a qualified prospect. (Remove all distractions.)
6. Change your income/sales goal.
7. Find a new career path. This alternative is only for those people who have thoroughly explored all options (including working with a sales coach) and, most important, have taken the time to develop their selling skills and implement a comprehensive selling system they have followed for a considerable length of time.

Fine-tuning the first six of the seven measurables I just mentioned will ensure that you are maximizing your time, your talents and your potential as well as each prospecting and selling opportunity.

In a recent interview, I was asked what companies can do to ‘boost their close ratios’ within the specialty retail market. Here were the questions as well as my responses.

Question: What are some common mistakes you see retailers make with regard to close ratios?

Response: Quite often a common mistake is simply not managing their sales numbers on an individual basis or not managing them accurately enough to provide a realistic picture of where they are and what they need to change or adjust regarding their selling efforts and approach. But the problem goes even deeper.

At the core, the real mistake is not accurately accounting for the activities they need to engage in throughout their day. All roads lead back to time management. So if you find that you’re not getting through all the tasks you need to in the time you’ve allocated for it, then there’s a strong chance you are suffering from unrealistic planning or you’re doing something else that you didn’t plan for nor account for in your daily schedule. As such, designate separate blocks of time for all your daily activities and responsibilities so that it doesn’t interfere with your selling efforts.

Finally, lack of follow up or follow through in their sales process. Many simply lack the sales acumen and selling skills they need to boost their sales such as effective follow up, asking the right questions that would create more selling opportunities as well as qualify the opportunities that make the most sense to invest your time in.

In a recent interview, I was asked what companies can do to ‘boost their close ratios’ within the specialty retail market. Here were the questions as well as my responses.

Question: What exactly is a close ratio and why is it important for retailers and their employees to pay attention to their close ratios?

Response: While you may find that the definition of a “closing ratio” vary dependant upon the industry and selling cycle, broadly speaking, your closing ratio is the number of prospects you’ve met with/spoken with divided by the number of sales you made. So, if you speak with 10 prospects and make 5 sales, then your closing ratio is 50%.
Regarding the importance of paying attention to their closing ratios, retailers need to be able to answer the following questions:

• How many calls do I need to make to generate one prospect?
• How many prospects does it take to generate one sale?
• How long will each prospecting or cold calling effort take?
• How much time do I need to devote to new business development every day?
• And how many sales do I need each month to attain my year end financial goals?

If you don’t know the answers to these essential questions, that’s perfectly fine. Realize that if you do not have the answer to some of these questions, it may require doing some conscious tracking of your cold calling efforts before you are able to accurately answer them. There are many tools available today to help track these numbers. Once you do, imagine how much easier your life would be if you were able to identify the specific and measurable actions you need to take on a daily basis in order to reach your yearly income goal. Now, you’ve created your success formula. You will then be able to determine how much prospecting or marketing/advertising is needed and and the number of appointments/presentations needed each month, even each day to attain your goals, as well as the time commitment it will take to do so.

If you can measure it you can then manage it. Let the numbers in your success formula determine the amount of activity you need to put into your daily routine that will ensure your selling success. It sure beats scratching your head at the end of every month, wondering why you didn’t meet your sales goals. Now, you will have a defined, formula to follow so that you can generate the results you want. You can’t refine what you don’t define.

Objections are a part of selling. Every salesperson can readily admit they’ve come face to face with objections throughout their sales career. Interestingly, salespeople define the word, ‘objection’ a variety of different ways.

In a seminar I delivered last week, I asked the audience what the word, ‘objection’ meant to them. Here’s what I heard in response:

1. It means “No.”
2. It’s an excuse.
3. It’s a smokescreen.
4. It’s a concern.
5. It’s a sign of interest.
6. It means “Get out. I’m not interested.”

While I’m a firm believer of the fourth and fifth definition above, salespeople still continually fall into the trap of creating objections themselves; the very obstacles they are looking to avoid in the first place. After all, if the prospect is not saying flat out “No” (and they’re being honest and upfront), then there’s a concern that you have not addressed and defused in a way that provides them with the confidence and peace of mind to move ahead and buy from you.

Salesopedia just published one or my articles on this very subject entitled, “Stop Creating The Objections that Kill Your Sales.”

You can read the article here.

So, in the end, developing a greater sensitivity around the obstacles and objections that you create during your selling process will assist you in eliminating certain roadblocks that shouldn’t be there in the first place.

However, what about the valid concerns that you hear from your customers and prospects? You know, the objections that sound like, “Your price is too high,” “I need to shop around,” “Let me think about it,” “Now’s not the right time,” “It’s not in the budget,” “We’re happy with our current vender, service provider, etc.” and so on. How adept are you in responding and actually defusing these common obstacles to the sale?

Here’s an exercise I would encourage you to do. List all of the objections you typically hear. Then, write down how you respond to each of them. If you find that your rebuttals are not effective enough to defuse these objections and create new possibilities for a sale, then it’s time to give them an overhaul. Take the time to create a more effective response for each objection you hear.

Remember, salespeople don’t overcome objections, your customers and prospects do. (After all, when was the last time you actually ‘convinced’ someone to do something that they really didn’t want to do?) So, your response to each objection will contain questions to better understand exactly where the prospect stands, rather than a defensive statement that simply creates an adversarial posture between you and the prospect.

Once you’ve developed the appropriate language to handle each objection, take them out for a test drive and gauge your results. Remember, if you don’t define it, you can’t refine it. How else can you determine what works and what doesn’t? Put your shotgun away. Shooting from the hip is a dead strategy. Developing a conscious process for handling each objection gives you the power to continually reinforce best practices that have been proven to work which will ultimately lead to more sales.

I’m writing to recommend a remarkable new book that will teach you exactly how the top pros are selling more — right now! Every day!

Top Dog Sales Secrets is the highly acclaimed bestseller written by 50 leading experts for professional salespeople, entrepreneurs, business owners, sales leaders and executives … anyone who wants proven and powerful ways to dramatically increase their sales.

——————————————————————————–

One reader said, “One of these top dog secrets can earn you a fortune.” Another said, “It’s like reading the best ideas from 50 sales books all in one book.”

——————————————————————————–

TODAY ONLY - January 22!

When you get your copy of Top Dog Sales Secrets today you will also receive $2,500 worth of valuable sales and marketing tools. It’s powerful stuff. You’ll get downloadable e-books, white papers, articles, and reports, all yours from top sales and business growth leaders. Take a look at your complimentary bonuses here.

This is a one-time deal so I encourage you to get your copy of Top Dog Sales Secrets and your valuable bonuses today. You will be glad you did.

Click here to learn more.

P.S. You have no risk. Your “extreme satisfaction” is guaranteed by the publisher. Don’t miss out!

You can check out some of the first videos available on KeithRosenTV on Youtube. They are also available for free right here on ProfitBuilders.com.

Here is one of the new videos discussing cold calling fear and reluctance and the best solutions to overcome them. You can check out more new video coaching content here on our site.

From this video: Here’s part of the transcript.
When coaching salespeople, the one activity that typically takes a back seat to everything else is cold calling.

Why is that why is there such a reluctance or aversion to picking up the phone and making that cold call?

Unfortunately, traditionally managers would offer a new template or a new script or maybe a new resource or collateral material in hopes that would make the salesperson more comfortable.

While this might help to a degree, it still doesn’t get the root of the issue, which is the salespersons fear of picking up the phone and making a call. Now here’s the interesting thing, if you think about the two people involved in the sales process, there’s the salesperson and the prospect. When I ask salespeople who the sales process should be about, they say “It should be about the prospect.”

If ask them who they are you making it about , and reluctantly if their being honest they say “I’m making it about me Keith”. Full transcript here.

I will be delivering a special free webinar that you can register for today. The date is approaching fast and details are below.

Date: August 1, 2007
Time: 10:00am PDT,
1:00pm EDT
Duration: One Hour
Cost: FREE

More Information or To Register Click Here

Permission Based Prospecting
Attract More Qualified Prospects - Close More Sales

Does this sound familiar? “If I could get in front of the prospect, the rest of the selling process becomes easier. It’s just getting in front of them that’s the challenge.” The fact is most cold calling efforts are doomed from the start. Salespeople lose sales not due to a lack of effort but because they lack a prospecting system they are comfortable with and can trust to generate greater, consistent results.

If you are prospecting the same way you have been for the last several years (including the, “calling to check in, touch base or follow-up” approach) or haven’t been prospecting at all, you’re simply making it easier for your competition to take away the new business you are working so hard to earn. So, if you love to sell but hate (or don’t like) to prospect, this program is your opportunity to maximize your cold calling potential and boost your income by learning how to get in front of the right prospects in less time and create greater selling opportunities without the fear, pressure or anxiety associated with cold calling.

In this session, Razi Imam CEO of Landslide Technologies will host this special event as I show you how to:

Strengthen your telephone communication skills.

So, the book launch is over. And a lot of work to coordinate. But all in all, it was very successful. My new book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Closing the Sale, Made the Amazon.com Best Seller List.

So, first, thank you for all of your support. And I want to thank my partners for their support in this launch as well. I couldn’t have done it without you. Keep the success stories rolling in that you’ve created as a result of implementing the strategies you’ve discovered in my book. I love to hear about them!

Well, now that this launch is over, it’s time for me to chain myself to my computer until Mid May when my NEXT book is due to my publisher (John Wiley & Sons.) I’m thrilled to be working with them on my next book which is on the subject of coaching your team to the top and how you can turnaround or terminate an underperformer in less than 30 days.

As you may know, my latest book on closing the sale was released earlier this month. So, why haven’t I made much fuss over it until now? I was waiting for a reason. Here’s the reason.

I’ve put together a very special Three Day Launch Event (Expires this Friday) and wanted to make sure you took advantage of it. You can find out more about my new book and this special launch event below. In the meantime, feel free to visit my new site where you can read the entire intro and Chapter One here. I’m confident that this book will forever change your thinking and behavior when it comes to closing the sale. And you’ll like the results you see.

Now, back to this event:

Special 3 Day Book Launch Event Ends Friday

Get my book 32% Off and hundreds of dollars worth of Bonus Items

Bottom line: Some of the leading industry experts and authors are coming together to give away for free some of their best resources which will only be available for 72 hours during this event. During this 3 day event, anyone who purchases just one copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Closing The Sale will receive all of these additional resources for free.

This book gives you the edge over your competition by showing you, step by step, how to get to “Yes” more often by aligning your selling approach with the prospect’s preferred buying process and communication style without any pressure, manipulation or confrontation. You’ll also get exactly what to say in any selling situation as well as the dialogue that the world’s greatest salespeople use to defuse objections, ask for the sale and close the deal. Plus, over 100 case studies, templates and scripts you can use with my powerful process driven selling approach.

Traditional and gimmicky closing techniques are dead. Never be scared or reluctant to ask for the sale again and enjoy the confidence and peace of mind in knowing you have a process that works. The greatest salespeople are not great closers; they are skilled openers of new selling opportunities. Whether you’re a seasoned sales pro or just starting out, tap into my unique, permission based approach to having a selling conversation with your prospects that fits your style of selling rather than having to ‘pitch and close;’ the same system that I coach thousands of salespeople, business owners and managers on each year.

Get my book 32% Off and hundreds of dollars worth of Bonus Items

**72 HOUR BONUS: Once you purchase my new book, you will be given access to additional bonus materials valued at over $1,000 from industry experts, associations and companies like Paul DiModica, Jill Konrath, Steven Gaffney, Kim George, Vince Thompson, Jacques Werth, Lori Richardson, AllBusiness.com, SalesDog.com, The National Association of Sales Professionals and other incredible authors and experts. To get these resources, you can spend hundreds of dollars separately or you can invest just $10.00 (just ten bucks), order one copy of my book today and spend not one penny more. But order right now, as this unique and time sensitive offer will expire on March 2nd at midnight.

Get my book 32% Off and More

Here’s one shot from that day’s video shoot which should be going live soon on sellingpower.com. Took the train into NYC and cabbed it over to the Waldorf on Park Avenue. Luckily, I got there in less than 1 hour.

During the interview, Gerhard Gschwandtner, the founder and publisher of Selling Power magazine and I discussed the art of cold calling, time management, thinking like a top producer, becoming a coach and my new book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Closing the Sale.