10 Top Tips: Silky Slick Sales Tactics

Published on Forbes.com
Featuring Amanda Puppo, CEO of MarketReach

Eighteen years after James Foley’s film adaptation of David Mamet’s play “Glengarry Glen Ross,” hit screens, the oft-quoted diatribe delivered by Alec Baldwin’s character Blake still resonates. Blake (that’s his name–just Blake) is the slick-haired, square-jawed man from “Downtown,” the man who made $970,000 last year, the man whose watch costs “more than your car,” and the man who rattles a group of rumpled real state salesmen with the chilling mandate: “Always…be…closing!” Here’s how.

Never Let Up

Sometimes prospects need an extra push–and Richard Laermer, chief executive of RLM PR, a public relations firm in New York, isn’t afraid to give it to them. When Laermer learns a company has not been landing enough press, he’ll send over a big box filled with the few articles the company has managed to grab, as well as a bunch of plastic spider webs. Laermer says he won’t cross the line to annoying, he says, but he gets right up next to it.

Serve Up A Guerrilla Lunch

Having trouble landing that first in-person meeting? Time for guerrilla tactics, says Adrian Miller, president of Adrian Miller Sales training and author of The Blatant Truth: 50 Ways to Sales Success. Miller recommends showing up at the prospect’s office at lunchtime with a delectable spread of haute cuisine. “Tell the receptionist that you’d be happy to send the food into the office, but would prefer if you could get 10 minutes while they eat,” says Miller. “They always feel too guilty to take the food and run.”

Try The Old “Takeback”

Customers tend to expect pushy, one-dimensional salespeople. Break that mold. Just when the client seems to be at an intractable crossroad, throw down something like, “This really may not be right for you,” or “I’m not quite sure that you’re in the right place now for what I’m offering,” says Amanda Puppo, founder of MarketReach, a marketing company. You’ll seem more genuine, and your offer will be more appealing.

Create Urgency

Casual browsers will remain casual until you give them a reason to be otherwise. Lenny Kharitonov, president of Unlimited Furniture Group in Brooklyn, N.Y., encourages browsing customers with a subtle nudge, such as: “It normally takes about three or four weeks to get the piece, but let me go check on this one…” His closing line minutes later: “If you’re truly interested, we have one that came in for a client who is not quite ready for delivery yet, and if you buy it today we can deliver it tomorrow.”

Ask That Last Question

After all of the bases have been covered, David Fields, managing director of Ascendant Consulting in Ridgefield, Conn., likes to throw out a question: “Is there any reason we shouldn’t move forward with this?” If Fields has made a solid pitch, the answer is usually “No,” and the clients, feeling they were given a chance to voice their thoughts, get more enthusiastic about committing.

Save Your Generals For The Big Show

If you’ve ever played Stratego, the board game, then you know to use your scouts (your abundant and cheap soldiers) to sniff out the opposition. The same theory applies to sales. If you have two or three great closers, don’t waste their time cold calling. Make sure your best salespeople spend most of their time in front of truly qualified and interested prospects.

Don’t Use Canned Pitches

Good closers avoid falling into uninspired routines. Prospects want to feel special, deserving of more effort than a canned pitch. “People want to be treated as individuals and will turn off in a heartbeat if they feel they are being treated otherwise,” says Margot Bartsch, an education consultant. “We have basic information to deliver to the customer that should be pitched in a different manner based on somebody’s personality, age, occupation and energy.”

Shine Up Their Egos

Decision makers like to be reminded that they are decision makers. That’s why Ellen Reach, a New York health coach, often finishes her spiels with something along these lines: “Some people make things happen; some people watch things happen; and some people wonder what happened. Which one are you?”

Flirt–Just Enough

As in dating, you want a prospect to think you’d like them as a customer but that you have a lot of other options, too. “You give them some attention but before they think you’re coming on too strong, you back it off,” says Paul King, chief executive of Hercules Networks, a New York provider of automated charging machines for cellphones, PDAs and MP3 players.

Let Them Talk Their Way Into The Sale

This subtle strategy makes customers think they are in control of the situation–and when people think they’re in control, they’re more likely to be decisive. “It’s not about me, it’s about them,” says Chuck Mache, chief executive of American TonerServ, a printer supply company. “I don’t close the deal, but rather the client does because they run out of objections as they talk everything out.”

Published: JAN 14, 2010 @ 07:30 PM

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