1 Tip for Closing Your Next Sale

Recently I went to dinner with a sales rep named Laura. She’s a pros pro and has 15+ years of significant accomplishments to validate this. I was asking her about some of the more significant sales she’s made over the years, and she told me the story behind one of them. 
 
It was a sign project for a large hospital group, and the total price of the project was north of $28 million, which is a whole lot in this business. Laura ended up getting the entire deal because of a creative decision she made based on her read of the customer. 
 
During her discussions with the customer, Laura could sense that this customer was very nervous about how the whole project would materialize once the customer had made their decision. Laura sensed this and called her boss, a guy named John. Laura said to John, “Based on how nervous she is, I think we should put one of our project managers on her site full-time in order to help her through this process. John agreed and Laura made this part of the offering. The client loved this, and Laura walked out of that meeting with a $2.5 million dollar check to start the $28 million dollar project.
 
It’s a great story and lesson for all of us to really LISTEN CAREFULLY to both what the customer is saying and what they are NOT saying. In this case, Laura’s customer did not come out and say “I need this because this project is overwhelming.” Laura got a sense of this based on how the customer was reacting and what the customer did NOT say. Laura is a master of reading between the lines and really knowing the customer intimately. This is a great example for us all to follow.