Every single salesperson you’ve known, met, or will ever meet has been struck with the curse of the verbal close.
At first, you don’t see it coming. The client says yes. They’re nodding. They like the numbers. Heck, they even liked you sharing your grandma’s ravioli recipe, and people buy from people they like.
You email the lease, update the CRM, and someone congratulates you. Maybe you even ring the bell.
You’re excited, giddy. Your prospect said “yes.”
Then it stops.
No signature. No feedback. No call. Just an awkward, endless pause.
Welcome to the wonderful world of professional selling and a not-so-unique learning opportunity: No deal is done until they sign on the dotted line. This is the curse of the verbal close. Every rep hits it and, unfortunately, more than once. The verbal close feels good, but it isn’t real, and sometimes, they fade.
How could this happen? Hindsight is twenty-twenty, and nobody wants to rub it in, but …
You didn’t determine, early on, who else was in on this decision, did you?
You didn’t find out how your prospect made the last major lease decision for the business, did you?
You didn’t bring a lease, ready to be signed, to the final meeting, did you?
Alright. Mistakes were made. Let’s move on
Now what?
There are hundreds of approaches recommended to dig out of this hole. My first suggestion is to move this opportunity to the 90-Day backburner and mentally accept that the deal is dead.
Remember, “You can’t lose what you never had.” Since you don’t have a deal yet, there’s nothing to lose.
Here’s an approach: begin and end your email with this –
“My biggest fear is that we agreed to work together, but something has changed. Has anything changed?”
That’s it. No rehashing of benefits, or speeds and feeds. And please, for all that is holy in the selling realm, do not say, “I’m just following up …”
Odds are the opportunity is sliding into the low percentage chance of closing but give it one final push.
Avoiding the curse
Here are four ideas to ponder, remember and apply with every opportunity:
- Know your prospect’s process.
- If you don’t understand, do not move forward.
- Be prepared.
- A verbal “yes” is not a bad thing.
Understanding
This is always easier when you’re curious. It’s simple to ask, “How do you folks make this kind of decision? Do you review with a board, take the paperwork to the owner or run it through accounting? Who has the authority to initiate this project? How does that work?”
All you are doing is setting expectations and visualizing a timeline. Things change, people are unpredictable, but now you are in the proper frame of mind to move methodically and with purpose for you, your prospect, and your dealership to achieve their goals. As you move through each stage, take a moment to confirm your understanding. It’s how you keep yourself and the sale on track.
Should I stay or should I go?
Clarity of the process, grounded in reality. When you don’t have both, you have nothing. When you don’t know who physically gives the green light, or how your prospect decides to spend $857.23 per month, do you know anything? Can you say with confidence that you know exactly what needs to be done to give your prospects the best solution to help achieve their goals? If you don’t know the process, do not move forward.
This may seem harsh, but in the end, time is the ultimate competitor. Spinning wheels on a prospect that hides the decision process, or failing to identify that process, is paramount to wasting both your and your prospects’ time.
I’m saying if you don’t KNOW the process, it’s time to exit. That’s different than knowing the process is laborious; the large time investment may be reason enough to pass on the opportunity, or not. Regardless, when you know, you know. When you don’t, get out.
Be prepared
Bring a lease with you. Some reps, especially new ones, are intimidated by every lease, not just the ones they carry. In addition to carrying hard copies, you should know your lease terms and conditions cold, especially the areas that might be challenging for your prospect. Be ready to discuss. Oh, and learn how to read a document upside-down.
“Yes” is just one step
When your prospect says yes, it is a good thing. It’s a strong buying signal to be quickly followed up with an authorized way forward. It’s just another step.
It isn’t the end game.
And that’s the point. One step. Not the finish line, not the celebration, not the commission check. Just a small, simple move forward in a process that, when handled right, leads to real results. The verbal close isn’t a win. It’s a moment. What happens next is what separates you from or keeps you one of the newbies.
Greg Walters
is an entrepreneur and founder of the notorious destination site TheDeathOfTheCopier, where he comments on all things imaging, the rise of managed services and the advance of business technology. A prolific writer and frequent speaker, Greg shares his passionate, unique – and often provocative – view of technology and people, addressing the impact of digital on 21st century business. His 2014 book, Death Of The Copier, offers a controversial summary of the early days of Managed Print Services and the not-so-distant future of the hard copy industry. Reach out to Greg at greg@grwalters.com.