When I’m interviewing experienced medical sales reps prior to customizing a training program for their company, I ask them what their biggest challenges are. The subject of closing the sale often comes up. “I do pretty well with the sales presentation. My problem is closing the sale.” When I ask what they think would solve the problem, I am usually told, “I need to be more assertive or learn how to ask for the business.”
Closing is important in that all of your efforts are for nothing if you can’t accomplish this part of the sale. But too many experienced medical sales professionals make the mistake of thinking that the sales magic is in the closing. 95% of the time, closing is not your problem. The problem is that you have not helped the prospect to establish enough value in the solution that you are offering to his or her problem.
Your prospect did not walk into the office, clinic, or hospital this morning thinking about why he or she wants to buy your product or service. The stark reality is that the medical professional that can benefit from using your product or service doesn’t even know that he or she needs it. This is where you come in. Are you a good enough presenter to be able to paint a vivid picture of how the clinician’s practice and the outcomes for the patient can be improved?
You see, once your prospect can anticipate emotionally and pragmatically that your product or service can yield a solid return on investment despite the risk associated with the learning curve or the pain of change — closing is a breeze! In fact, when you have done your job well the prospect will usually say, “I would like to try it.” But if he or she doesn’t speak up, all you have to do is ask if he or she has a patient, procedure, or surgery on the schedule to give it a try?
The “meat and potatoes” of getting the sale is in the presentation, not the close. The close is merely getting a commitment to evaluate or purchase your product or service, or to take a step to advance the sale. A “closer” is a salesperson that can deliver an effective presentation where the value of the product or service is clear. The closing does not occur only at the end of the presentation — it’s occurring the entire time that you help your prospect to understand the value of your offering.
Mace,
I like your anology on closing. Reading your blog comes only hours after a med device interview today–a day late and a dollar short I guess. Anyway, in preparing for my interview today I made sure that I would not forget to “trial close” and then “close”, hopefully getting the Manager to a yes. But after reading your blog, I realized throughout my interview I had the Manager saying “yes” and changing her first point of view in favor of mine. Your right. Its the presentation that creates value. Its the art of carrying your viewer (or in my case, the listner) through with “excitement” and of course with “buy in”–its that emotional arch sales people have to create, gyrate, instigate, propagate, in order to facilitate the closing of the sale.
Mace, your words of wisdom are much appreciated! Keep them coming.
Sincerely,
Kevin C
Thanks, Kevin. It’s the same during an interview — if you’re “selling” your value the entire time and the interviewer perceives that value it’s very easy to say at the end, “I think we have a good fit here, Mr. Smith and I would like to work for your company. What’s the next step?” Many would call a question like that a “closing question” or a “trial close,” but realistically, you have been closing the entire interview. By all means, if a prospect (or interviewer) doesn’t offer you the business at the end, then you must ask for it. If the answer is no, then somewhere along the line, the prospect (or interviewer) missed your value proposition and you need to go back and determine where, demonstrate the value, verify that he perceives the value, and ask for the business (or the job) again. Thanks for your post.