{"id":555,"date":"2010-07-18T10:38:40","date_gmt":"2010-07-18T17:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/?p=555"},"modified":"2010-07-18T10:54:10","modified_gmt":"2010-07-18T17:54:10","slug":"closing-the-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/?p=555","title":{"rendered":"Closing the Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The PracticaL Mentor<\/p><\/div>\n

Perhaps the best definition of closing a deal is when a commitment is made.\u00a0 The classic business definition is when money changes hands, but in our careers and life in general we make a lot of deals that do not involve money.\u00a0 Deals are a social concept where one side gives some thing in exchange for something else.\u00a0 The exchange does not have to be tangible.\u00a0 How many times a have you heard or used the statement \u201cI\u2019ll do X if you do Y.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 In reality you are proposing a verbal contract.\u00a0 If your experience is like mine, I usually get a counter proposal that either starts a negotiation or a withdrawal of the offer.\u00a0 So in effect most of us have been closing deals since we learned how to talk.\u00a0 So what makes closing deals so difficult?<\/p>\n

Sales is the classic setting for the \u201cclosing the deal\u201d concept.\u00a0 There are hundreds of books and articles written on salesmanship and how to persuade potential customers to buy products.\u00a0 Since the world economy is based on the sale of goods and services, it is no wonder sales is the primary focus in closing deals.\u00a0 However, since in theory everything a person wants depends upon other people, it is imperative to be good at making and closing deals on all levels.\u00a0 Some may question my last statement, and to be honest I keep thinking about different scenarios in which my goals do not depend on other people.\u00a0 Take some time and think it through.\u00a0 Let me know when you find a person who came into this world through no assistance of others, and survives with no interaction with other people. (I would be interested to hear your thoughts and discuss it with you.) Even if you are not convinced that everything you want depends on other people, indulge me the premise that it is important to each of us to learn to be more effective at closing deals.<\/p>\n

The three fundamental parts to a deal is a perceived need or desire, an offering of a perceived solution, and an exchange to obtain the solution.\u00a0 The need or desire, the proposed solution, and the exchange do not have to be tangible.\u00a0 Advertisers are masters of promoting the first two parts developing a perceived need or desire, and suggesting a solution.\u00a0 A lot can be learned from advertisers, and how they ply their trade by creating a need or desire and then suggesting a solution.\u00a0 However it is up to the sales force to complete the exchange.\u00a0 Although all three parts are necessary to make a deal, the exchange is where most of us stumble.<\/p>\n

One of the fundamental complaints of the sales force is the product is hard to sell because it does not provide a solution or is not worth the price.\u00a0 It is hard to close a deal that you do not believe in.\u00a0 Although we have all heard of \u201ceasy as taking candy from a baby\u201d few of us practice this technique.\u00a0 I am sure we have all pulled a few fast ones, but by in large if we question the validity of something, we automatically think others will reach the same conclusion.\u00a0 Although I do not advocate taking unfair advantage or intentionally telling a lie, you should not jump to conclusions about what others think.\u00a0 As an illustration, an article on selling life insurance included a short story of a life insurance salesman who tried to talk his brother-in-law out of buying life insurance, because he thought it was a bad deal for someone so young to buy life insurance.\u00a0 The salesman argued that the chances needing life insurance so young were slim to none. The brother-in-law finally said, \u201cIf you do not sell me life insurance, I will buy it somewhere else. \u201c\u00a0 So the salesman reluctantly complied. Within a year the brother-in-law was in a fatal accident leaving behind an expecting wife. The message is clear. \u00a0Don\u2019t prejudge someone else\u2019s needs or desires.<\/p>\n

Setting a fair price is tricky. \u00a0In business there is a philosophy to charge what the market will bare.\u00a0 There is also an idea to charge what a product is worth.\u00a0 In essence both of these statements say the same thing.\u00a0 Market theory stresses that the value of a product is what the market will pay.\u00a0 That is what makes markets. \u00a0So the trick is to price what you are selling within the customers perceived value range.\u00a0 Too many of us over price our products.\u00a0 This causes two problems.\u00a0 One is that you will not close the deal because the other party is not willing to pay your price.\u00a0 The other is it entices the other party to raise the value of their end of the exchange, which flips the deal, making you the customer instead of the salesman.\u00a0 For example, you propose to work an hour extra a day in exchange for getting a free day off every week.\u00a0 Your thinking is that you are working overtime by giving the extra hour every day, and it should be worth time and a half.\u00a0 Your idea is that each extra one hour a day is worth 1 \u00bd hours so by working 4 hours extra week would have a value of 6 hours so your employer would be giving you only 2 hours a week.\u00a0 Perhaps your employer looks at a little differently, and offers a counter proposal of you working an hour over every day for nine days for the tenth day off.\u00a0 This proposal has you working 9 hours in exchange for 8 hours off.\u00a0 His thinking is that there should be some compensation for doing without you for a full day.\u00a0 On the other hand if you would have propose and hour extra for an hour off you may have been able to come to an agreement of working 8 hours of extra for 8 hours off. Then each side is getting the same basic perceived value for your time.<\/p>\n

I have studied sales and negotiations since I was 12 years old.\u00a0 One of my first jobs was with a man who made his living buying and selling used and recycled \u201cstuff. \u201c My conclusion is there are no magic words to induce someone to accept your proposal.\u00a0 There are some basic concepts that may aid in your success of closing deals.\u00a0 They are: have a realistic view of others needs and desires. – \u201cSelling iceboxes to Eskimos\u201d is not a sound business model; your solution should meet the customers perceived need or desire. \u00a0– Don\u2019t be a \u201csnake oil salesman. \u201c Your customers will come after you when they sober up. and;\u00a0 propose a fair exchange. \u00a0Don\u2019t try taking candy from a baby, their parents are watching.<\/p>\n

The PracticaL\u00a0 Mentor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps the best definition of closing a deal is when a commitment is made.\u00a0 The classic business definition is when money changes hands, but in our careers and life in general we make a lot of deals that do not involve money.\u00a0 Deals are a social concept where one side gives some thing in exchange […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,1,75,18,77,76,74,63,19],"tags":[209,214,51,5,9,213,38,15,3,31,41,222,208,27,30],"class_list":["post-555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-application","category-advice","category-closing","category-mentor-advice","category-negotiations","category-persuasion","category-sales","category-skills","category-success","tag-abundance","tag-aptitude","tag-career","tag-career-advice","tag-career-strategies","tag-goals","tag-job-experience","tag-mentor","tag-practicalmentor","tag-money","tag-rapport","tag-sales","tag-success","tag-tactics","tag-value"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=555"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":558,"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions\/558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}