"Our "closing ratio" is well above the average in our industry": True or False (for your business)?

There are FIVE reasons why the "closing ratio" - percentage of meetings that turn into business - is poor for a business and FIVE corresponding ways, PATHS, to fix those problems - once and for all.

FIRST PATH You are accepting Think-It-Over as a valid answer for the fear of getting a NO. In traditional selling, a NO is avoided like plague. Yet, studies show that 94% of the time your prospects tell you that he is going to "Think It Over" at the end of a sales meeting, he is really trying to tell you that he is not going to do business with you. By giving your prospects the permission to tell you NO, in advance, you establish yourself as a trusted advisor, as opposed to a pushy sales person. In the process, you stop wasting time with prospects who are not real prospects and spend more time with better prospects, with better chances of closing the sale.

SECOND PATH You are giving away - for free - your knowledge and expertise in the form of proposals, presentations, quotes and demos, often helping your competition in closing the deal. Your expertise and your knowledge is one of the only leverages you have in selling situations, where the prospect is the judge and the jury. When you give away your expertise for free, you give up control of the selling situation and help your prospects shop you around with your competition. Make sure that you only provide your expertise to those who are qualified to do business with you - those who have an emotional reason to buy your products or services, have the money budgeted to pay for them and have fully shared their decision making process with you.

THIRD PATH Your selling process is not designed to appeal to the emotional side of your prospects. People buy emotionally; only justify their decision intellectually. If you have not uncovered their emotional reasons for buying, they won't have the urgency to do business with you. This will result in them putting off the buying decision until later which, in majority of the cases, will result in no-business.

FOURTH PATH Your are not uncovering the prospect's money tolerance before presenting your solutions, features and benefits. Not uncovering your prospects' money tolerance in advance sets you up for "negotiating" later - when you have lost all your negotiating power by giving away your solutions. The best negotiation is when there is no negotiation.

FIFTH PATH You don't uncover your prospect's Decision Making Process before presenting your solutions, features and benefits. How many times have you heard that your prospect needs to Think-It- Over because so-and-so was not there at that meeting. By uncovering your prospects' decision making process up-front, you will present your solutions to the true decision maker and increase your chances of closing the business.