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COVER STORY By Bob Clements SUCCESSFUL SALES STRATEGIES SERIES (PART III): Following is the last of a three-part series: trying out a specific piece of equipment be- cause that person wanted to buy the equip- ment from that specific dealership or salesperson. That is why in this article, I want to help salespeople focus on the final stages of the selling process — negotiating and closing — and provide some simple techniques to make the process painless. During the first two articles of this three-part series, I covered the sales process from the greeting to handling objections. So, in this article, I’m operating under the assumption that you have worked on mas- tering the other aspects of the selling process and are now in front of a customer who is ready to buy. The presentation is coming to an end, and you have created that “yes” momentum that I wrote about in part two. The Trial Close “Yes,I’ll take it!” That is the one Many salespeople in dealerships are ter- sentence that an OPE deal- ership salesperson hopes to hear from each and every customer. While it would be great to hear, in reality it seldom happens. As a matter of fact, as much as we like to believe that when customers are ready to buy, they always say “yes,” the opposite is true. In most cases, customers don’t say any- thing; they just stand beside you, wanting the equipment, but don’t want to make a commitment. That’s where we come in as professional salespeople who help cus- tomers make decisions that are good for them. 16 rified of forcing a customer into buying a piece of equipment for fear of being too pushy or aggressive. Yet, the reality of the situation is that the customer walked into the dealership and spent time with the salesperson looking at, talking about, and At this stage in the selling process, make a quick check to see if the customer is ready to move toward a buying commit- ment. You may not know for sure at this point, which is precisely why you need to do a quick check. To determine where the customer is at in the process, do what is called a “Trial Close.” The Trial Close is simply asking customers a question that will determine if they are close to making a buying decision. It should involve having customers envision themselves using the equipment and then elicit a response from them about their perceived satisfaction. For example, you may ask, “How do you see this mower working on your yard?” Now you may find out by asking a Trial Close question that the customer stops and says, “This is exactly what I was looking for.” In that case, your Trial Close became your closing question and all you have to do is say to the customer, “Well, let’s get the pa- perwork done, and we can have you and your equipment on your way.” The When it comes to closing, I always preach the same message — just assume the customer is going to buy. OUTDOOR POWER EQUIPMENT www.outdoorpowerequipment.com Illustration ©istockphoto.com/creatingmore