This topic comes up often in sales discussions – when should I go for the close? Or hiring managers often ask, “Is he a closer?” Or articles state that most salespeople fail because they don’t ask for the order (i.e. close).
So what are we to make of this topic? Selling Power offers a bit of an enigmatic article titled Knowing When to Close. The responses are from a sales meeting from 1929 (I don’t know why). The pull quote:
A still smaller minority expressed the opinion which I believe to be the correct one, that while there is undoubtedly one moment that is the best time to close any sale, at the same time there are many moments almost as good, so that the salesman will have many other good chances to close, even if he does pass the one best moment.
I agree with that, but I have often stated here that the focus needs to be on qualifying instead of closing. Sales don’t close due to poor, or incomplete, qualifying. A salesperson who does not ask for the business will have problems, but not nearly as many as a salesperson who asks for the business without knowing if the deal is qualified. This point is critical to sales success.