One of the biggest troubles for salesmen is knowing when to ask for the order and because of this lack of knowledge many find their courage lacking and instead hope that the customer will ask to buy.
This very seldom works. Customers won’t often ask to buy, people want to procrastinate (read Back to Work! Back to Work! Back to Work!).
Therefore it is up to you to ask for the order.
But the lack of knowledge will still be there even if you do work up the courage to ask…
What is a Trial Close?
This is an often used technique by sales professionals.
Its sole purpose is to see if the customer is on the same page as we are and if they are prepared to take the next step.
As we have seen so far in this series “selling in steps” – Activity, Cold Calling, Referrals, The First Contact, Needs Analysis, Product Presentations – that selling is just a matter of steps, take the first, move on to the second and so on.
What trial closes help you do is see if the customer is at the same step as you and if they are prepared to move to the next step.
How do you test the customer?
As to the testing, it is just a simple question.
For example, if you are at the needs analysis and you wish to move on, feed everything back to the customer:
“So I think we have a good grasp of the situation, these are your problems, this is what you want improved, this is what you are hoping for and this is what you want to see me bring to the table, am I right or did I miss something?”
The answer to this question will be most telling.
I have in many sales instances been so surprised by the answers to this question that they changed my whole presentation.
In one situation it turned out that all we had said up to that point was completely incorrect.
It turned out that my customer was hoping for something completely different.
But once we had cleared the misunderstandings I asked the customer again and got the answer; “Yes, that sounds about right.”
Moving on to the next step
After getting a positive answer to the trial close you know both of you are ready to move on to the next step.
You can ask this question many times, as you saw in my example above, so that you don’t spend too long or too short a time at each step of the process.
Trial closes at the end of the sales process
Just before you are going to ask for the order making a trial close is perfect.
All you need to do is ask;
“So, now that we have discussed these problems and I have presented these solutions that you thought sounded good (you already trial closed after your product presentation, making sure the customer thought the advice you gave was sound) is there anything else you would like to add?”
If the answer is “Yes” you know there are more questions to be answered, but if they answer “No, I think that is all” all you have to do is ask for the order and more often than not, you will get it.
Action Exercise
1. Add trial closes to your sales process; make sure to test the client at every step so you make sure you are on the same page.
2. Trial closes are meant to be used often, don’t wait too long before asking, less the customer gets bored.
What do you think?
What is your experience with trial closes? Have they helped you? Have you used them as I use them or do you have a different technique?
Please share your views below.
Thank you for reading and good luck to you.
Photo Credit: Robert Couse-Baker
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Great topic here Daniel. I’m really funny….or should I say different with my trial closes. I’m the type that says it all at the beginning, kinda like:
OK, so upon completion of this meeting, I’m going to ask you for a deposit. How’s that sounds?
Like I said, many people think I’m crazy, until they see me do it, as it ensures a great sales appt every time.
Well Marcus if it works it works.
I know we have tried that in my industry and people just laugh or hang up on us at once.
But you have built yourself a great reputation and by asking that you kind of put the ball in their court, they no that if they take the meeting with you they are expected to buy your products.
The fact that they have that mind set probably gives you a lot more sales.
//Daniel