I really want to throw something at you. If you're in business development, I know that there's a lot of pressure and there's that old phrase, ABC, Always Be Closing. And there's a lot of pressure, a lot of people that maybe your managers, your mentors, even the people you respect the most, that are saying, "you've got to learn how to close, you should always learn how to close, always be closing, a lot of pressure to close, get that decision, close the deal".
There's a lot of time and energy wasted, trying to train new people in the business development world on how to close, how to get a client and say yes. Tat's a problem. I think closing is never the problem, because the problem is at the beginning, not at the end. If you really want to master collecting decisions, being more efficient, more effective, don't wait until the bomb is uncontrollable at the end and you've already messed up your approach, your conversational structure, your emotional engagement with a prospect, or the opportunity to really help them figure out that you understand them better than anybody else, by trying to put a lot of pressure on them to make them say yes. Get out of the closing business.
The real problem that most business development professionals have is that they don't realize that opening is the problem. The opening is what sets the stage for everything else that's going to happen in a business development conversation. If you don't set that up correctly, you're not going to be able to collect the decision comfortably, easily, or as effectively as you could. If you don't understand that it's a conversation, it's not a contest, to see who can be more demanding or more in control or more overbearing than the other person, you should get your head around the idea that if you open an opportunity properly, give both parties the right and the responsibility to say yes or no. Is it a good fit or not? And to listen to each other, not try to convince each other. Closing as an issue will go away faster than you ever thought and your world will become more successful, more profitable, and less stressful in the interactions that you have day to day in business development.
Stop closing. It's not healthy. You think that's what you get paid for, but it's not. It's really in how to master the opening and the management of the process so that the decision is easy to achieve. Thanks for taking the time to listen. Good luck good selling. Have a great weekend. Go make money.
