Use Your Instincts to Close

By Keith Rosen, MCC
The Executive Sales Coach ^TM

When involved in a conversation, have you ever had the feeling that your companion was not being completely honest and upfront with you? While many people have felt this way -- whether it's with a business owner, manager, parent, co-worker, coach, or consultant -- I'm often told that they really don't know how to handle it. Take a salesperson, for instance. Instead of confronting a potential customer about this concern, they take what this prospect says and try to do their best to work around it, even though they know that the prospect is withholding something.

Many salespeople feel they don't have an approach that would help extract the truth -- the real truth -- in this situation. After all, what can you say? ''Mr. Prospect, I think you're lying to me or not telling me everything.'' Certainly, this is not an approach I would endorse. Aside from putting the prospect on the defensive, there's a good chance that this tactic will destroy any chance of selling to this person. How can you tell when there's something else a prospect may be holding back from you? Here are a few signs.

If you and your prospect have established a desire and need for your product or service and:

• They stop returning your calls.
• They are still reluctant to meeting with you.
• You can't seem to move the sales process forward, even when they continue to say ''yes'' to you. For example, you schedule a meeting and the prospect keeps canceling it. They have a clear interest in your services and even request additional information but something always seems to get in the way of taking the next step.