How Does Your Team Gain a Client’s Commitment to Begin?

Written by Andrew on November 28th, 2011

“My team just needs to do a better job closing the order.  They are fine at building rapport and identifying client needs; their proposals link these needs to specific benefits, and they present these face to face.  But, they often leave the presentation without any commitment to begin.  Then they wait for an answer or to contact them so that they do not appear too pushy.  What are we missing?” said a General Manager who we have been working with.

We have often found that almost half of the client presentations do not end with a specific question to begin or, even better, a statement assuming we are about to begin.  If the representative has been customer-focused to this point in their sales process, the presentation is the solution the client was waiting to see.  Many presentations end with “Do you have any questions?” or “What do you think?” instead of specifically asking to begin to work for their client.  “With your approval today we will commence on Tuesday. Can we move forward to achieve your objectives?”  We need a closed question at this point not an open question.

The second common mistake in sales or business development presentations occurs when the representative does not allow the client to answer their question.  How long would you wait for a response from a client after seeking their approval? (Answer: As long as it takes.)  If they do not want to move forward, they will offer some statement fairly quickly (like they just want some time to think about it).  The longer the silence, the more likely they are going to move forward.  While sales people become nervous with the silence, they need to manage this in order to listen to the client.

The other key focus of seeking commitment is the phraseology; the representative needs their approval to “begin to work for the client in order to solve the client’s issues”.  In other words, we should not be ‘closing’ the client but ‘opening’ them to the solution that will meet their needs.  We need to seek authority to begin not “complete the transaction with the signature”.  Often we need to reinforce what comes next after their approval.

Have we asked a specific question to seek commitment and then ‘shut up’ until the client responds?  Have we focused our wording around the client’s needs to solve their issue and our desire to commence the solution?  And, have we identified the client’s communication style to ‘mirror them’ appropriately and remain customer-focused?