(excerpts from "The Closer's Survival Guide")
by Grant Cardone
#9 - A Shortage of Closing Material
A lack of closing material will stop the close. It is one of the top ten reasons for not closing the deal. The close is where you hit pay dirt for the first time. While most sales people agree that the average customer has to be asked five times before they will finally close, the very same sales person only has four closes. That would be one close short of what would be needed on the average customer during a normal deal. When times get tough buyers get more resistant and that means you need even more closes.
The reasons the close does not take place are finite... not infinite as many think. The close itself falls into a handful of categories; time, money (price/payment/terms), product justification, stalls and third parties. The number one biggest reason for not closing is never asking, the next reason is that the sales person was unable to persist because he/she ran out of ammo!
Due to a lack of successful techniques and closing material, salespeople are unable to persist in the close. It is not because you aren't motivated, its because you don't know what to say. No matter how powerful the rocket it won't get anywhere without fuel. The fuel for the Closer is closes. You need hundreds of them drilled and rehearsed, loaded and ready to be fired off where appropriate!
I have personally met hundreds of thousands of salespeople and only a small percentage of them have even a handful of practiced, rehearsed and prepared closes. I know thousands of salespeople who, after leaving my seminars and being on my closing programs have as many as one-hundred completely rehearsed, drilled to perfection magical closes that they are able to use and depend on in real life selling situations. All of these individuals watched their confidence, their love of their job and their incomes soar!
Great sales people are rare and great closers are even more rare. While some of us have more natural gifts that would incline us to be sales people no one is born a great closer. This talent can only be learned and it is the kind of skill that can always be improved on. The single thing a closer needs is a wide variety of closes in order to stay in the deal and persist until he/she gets the yes!