Jonathan Farrington’s Blog

The JF Guest Author Spot

Keith Rosen MCC

If you eat healthfully and take care of yourself, then you will never need to go on a diet. A sound and practical philosophy, regardless of how challenging it may be at times to consistently do so.

This same philosophy holds true when it comes to selling. If you honor a well-balanced sales process, which includes everything from first contact to how you qualify a prospect, as well as how effectively you deliver your presentation, then you will not have to close.

Look what was being taught in the old school of selling. The old school taught salespeople to close, close, close. Salespeople were told to spend most of their time closing the deal. Trainers taught salespeople fancy closes to handle and overcome objections. Over the years, a new school of thought has evolved: the school of possibility. Imagine what would be possible if all the objections you typically hear at the “closing table” were prevented and defused throughout the course of your presentation.

There exists a choice a salesperson has to make. The first choice is spending minimal time on your presentation and spending the rest of your time attempting to close the prospect. The second choice is investing most of your time up front on a masterful presentation infused with well-crafted questions that defuse the most common objections you hear. This results in the prospect essentially closing himself, with minimal effort. Which school do you choose to be a student of?

Do you run into the same objection over and over again? If you see a pattern, wouldn’t it make sense to plan for or master a way to defuse these objections by preventing them from surfacing before they actually arise? Wouldn’t it make your job easier to put these objections or concerns to rest throughout your presentation? The end of your presentation should simply be the natural evolution of the selling process: earning the business of a new prospect.

If you can overcome an objection during the course of your presentation when it is still in its fetal stage, as opposed to waiting until the end of your presentation when it becomes a full-grown obstacle, you will find yourself spending less time closing and more time posting new sales.

Consider this: if you were building a brick wall, what would be easier; removing a broken brick that has just been laid or waiting until the wall is fully constructed? If you wait until the end, you have to tear down the entire wall just to get to the broken brick, and then spend the rest of your time reconstructing it.

The same holds true with your selling process. Remove the defective bricks or objections first in order to avoid having to do so later, when it just may be too late to do anything about it.

Keith Rosen is the preferred, authentic coach that top executives and sales professionals in many of the world’s leading companies call first. As a prominent, engaging speaker, Master Coach and well-known author of many books and articles, Keith is one of the foremost authorities on assisting people in achieving positive, measurable change in their attitude, in their behavior and in their results. Keith’s articles can be found in Selling Power Magazine and has appeared in feature stories in The New York Times, The Washington Times, Inc. Magazine, Sales and Marketing Management’s Ultimate Motivation Guide with Stephen Covey and The Wall Street Journal. For his work as a pioneer in the coaching profession, Inc. magazine and Fast Company named Keith one of the five most respected and influential executive coaches in the country.

To speak with Keith about personalized, one to one or team coaching or training or to receive his free ezine,
call 1-888- 262-2450, e-mail info(at)ProfitBuilders.com or visit www.ProfitBuilders.com.

Today’s News: I am incredibly lucky to have a small, trusted group of advisors, of which Keith is a very important member. Another, my “Crazy Sister” Jill Konrath, is adamant that my writing style is “high-brow” - that probably has something to do with her catching me off-guard one time and me confessing my membership of MENSA: You can imagine the conversation - “My name is Jonathan… and I have been inducted into a society for ….” Something almost “Confessional”

The reality is that I have deliberately avoided subjects that might be termed “controversial”

I am talking about - my political views; corporate corruption; the hypocrisy within the Catholic Church; why we are experiencing the worst financial meltdown in decades……..

But not anymore.

From this Saturday, you can catch JF Uncut (I know, the mind boggles)

Every Saturday and Sunday, I’ll be giving you my take on the things that are really important to me - no holds barred - and totally unassociated with my usual Monday-Friday persona.

If you think you can hack it (expletives may be used) then join me.

First up, I am going to respond to this load of ********

My experience is that Jerry is a really nice guy, so it’s nothing personal - truth is, we are in this mess because of two emotions that have driven the finance sector for almost two decades - greed and fear. I’ll elaborate on Saturday. 

Tomorrow: Even skilled and seasoned negotiators struggle sometimes when it comes to trading concessions, prefering to take the swiftest route to closure and thus leaving so much money on the table - tomorrow my advice on how to gather up those last few cents.

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