Overview

The first person that speaks loses...The first person that speaks loses...The first person that speaks loses!

If you re a veteran salesperson, you ve probably heard this before. Maybe you heard it from one of the old timers in our industry, or from another salesperson, or your first sales manager, or one of the traditional, popular generic sales trainers. Wherever you heard it, it really doesn t matter. What matters is that you are open to discussing closing philosophies, understanding some of the principles of closing, and specifically improving your ability to close a higher percentage of the qualified prospects you are working on.

So where does The first person that speaks loses come from?

Apparently in some industries, in some sales environments, after a salesperson asks a closing question, and then shuts up, the tension builds to such a point, that the prospect is compelled to answer in the affirmative. It is thought that if the salesperson has answered and overcome every imaginable objection, and can wait long enough after asking a closing question, the prospect, out of some kind of exasperation (if the salesperson can shut up long enough), will be compelled to relieve the tension, by saying, OK...let s go or OK...I ll do it, or OK...I ll buy it or OK...$16,000 is a lot to pay for one-week a year in Cozumel, but the view is lovely, and it forces us to take a vacation every year, so OK or OK, I know $38,000 is a lot to pay for a...