- November 17, 2008
- Posted by: admin
- Categories: Blog, Search Marketing
Closure is one of the most ‘overemphasized’ aspects of any marketing pitch. In your honest opinion, how does closure contribute to sales when it comes to internet marketing? Would you prefer:
a) a pitch where your intention is to ‘inform’ your prospect, and let them make a sensible, informed decision:
b) a traditional ‘closure’ pitch which has a greater chance of conversion, even if it compromises the ‘perception vs reality’ ratio of your product to a ‘manageable’ extent?
5 Comments
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Just be honest and open about your product or service. Tell the truth. Be an upfront salesperson. Trying to trick the customer, compromising “perception vs. reality” will only anger those you are trying to sell to…
Here’s my take based upon 35+ years of making the sale.
Allowing the client or customer to take your information & make an informed decision whereby they go out and get more information from your competition who is without question going to CLOSE the sale makes no sense at all.
Don’t ever misrepresent. But always present your service or product in the best possible light. Then, A B C / Always Be Closing. I know that is over simplistic, but if you don’t “ask” for the order, you seldom get the order.
So, my answer is “B”
Regards,
Paul
Hi Zohaib,
From personal experience, I find that as Dave mentioned, being open and honest about your product or service will get you the best long term results.
DON’T PRESSURE THEM – THEY’LL COME BACK
I’ve seen leads that I thought were cold or even dead come back a year later to do business with us because they were ready to do so and because we didn’t pressure them when we first spoke.
DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE COMPETITION
Paul does however make a very valid point that your goal should be to drive a potential client to the close but I disagree that you need to be afraid they will end up doing business with your competition after they’ve done their research.
LEAVE THE DOOR OPEN
Your approach will have a big impact on their decision to do business with you or not, and if they choose not to do business with you initially, I find leaving the door open for them to come back to be highly effective. Even if they decide to go with a competitor.
MAKE IT EASY TO TRY YOU OUT
In this case, offering them a free second opinion after they’ve worked with the competition can be a powerful motivator to try you out. The idea is to get clients to feel comfortable working with you and that you have their best interests in mind.
AGGRESSIVE CLOSE = WRONG PERCEPTION
Focusing exclusively on closing instead of how you can solve a potential problem or challenge for a client can get you into trouble because you might come across as a slick talking used car salesman who’s only looking out for himself.
You might increase conversions in the short term by focusing primarily on closing, but most likely will build a poor reputation and stand to lose more business in the long run.
Links:
http://www.makeitbloom.com
I agree with most of the answers here. An informed prospect that converts into a customer is the best customer to have. You will develop a much better following than just pitching the old ‘used-car-salesman’ pitch. You will get more recommendations and sell more products in the long run, even if it means less sales up front.
EarlytoRise.Com has a great article relating to this.
Links:
http://www.earlytorise.com/2008/10/02/10-words-to-close-any-sale.html
Here’s the bottom line. Internet marketing has a reputation of two types of marketing…
a) The “grass roots” marketing. (These are your die-hard, let’s write a long, sales-letter, attend a gazillion seminars on how to sell my $20 product and bring people into my marketing funnel folks.)
b) Actual marketing people.
Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not putting down anyone who has made their fortune with grass-roots marketing. I’m simply saying that frankly, I’m tired of it’s run on the web. (Ho-hum.)
I’m so glad that folks like David M. Scott and others are bringing back into the light the fact that it “ain’t” (poor grammar intended) about us. It’s all about our customers. If you have something to sell. Figure out what their problems are, I mean really get to the heart of the problem. Don’t just find the scar, find the deep, dark wound.
Then, find your compelling value. I keep saying this over and over. But value, not pitch, is what will make your sale.
Let’s face it. People are busy. I hit delete on my email and voicemail all the time. I see and hear pathetic messages all the time. I see them on the web and I’m gone in a second. But when I see a website that really seems to get my needs….well….
They’ve got me hooked. 🙂
So, for me, it’s not about closure. Not at all. In fact, I take that work out of my vocabulary. I think value. Work value. Talk value. Think value. Add value. Put value into everything you do until it becomes who you are. Then, the rest just falls into place.