I want to start part four of our five-part mini-course “The 5 Biggest Mistakes Professionals Make Selling Their Services And How To Avoid Them” with a true story.

A couple of years ago, my youngest stepson, “Drewski,” was working with his math tutor.

After they finished working on math problems I couldn’t even pretend to understand, Kalia asked how Drew was doing and mentioned she wanted to get him an SAT tutor.

While making seared-Ahi tuna for dinner, I listen to it, and I hear the math tutor start hemming and hawing. It was apparent he was hinting that he offered SAT tutoring services.

After about a minute of that, I couldn’t take it. I took the tuna off the burner, turned to the math tutor, and said, “Dude, give us your pitch! Sell us on your service!”

God bless him; he tried and then talked about being an SAT tutor since the year, blah, blah, blah.

Exasperated, as I was plating our dinner,  I said, “And now tell us that you’re going to go home and email Kalia a proposal and then follow up!”

He never did.

Sadly, this is not an isolated problem with service professionals, and it brings us to…

Big Mistake #4: Continuing To Talk When You Should Close

The truth is a lot of people are afraid to ask for the sale and, or don’t know how to do it. But even the folks who do know how to close often don’t recognize buying signals. Instead, they keep talking and miss the window of opportunity when the prospect is almost ready to say “yes.” They talk themselves out of the sale.

A client once said, “But I’m a teacher, not a salesperson.” He meant that he likes teaching his prospects instead of closing them. The last time I checked, teachers don’t make mucho DEEnero. There’s nothing wrong with educating your prospects as long as it leads to a sale!

Remember that you are doing your prospect a disservice if you don’t close. You can’t help your prospects get the desired outcome if they don’t become a client. You lose, your business loses, and your prospect loses if you don’t recognize buying signals and ask for the sale.

It’s beyond the scope of this mini-course to cover buying signals in detail, but here is a handful to get you started.

• The prospect leans in when you talk about a particular benefit they will receive.
• The prospect asks a question about timing. Ex. “So, how long does it take from start to finish?”
• The prospect asks for clarification about the terms. Ex. “So, I put x down today and then x again in 30 days?”
• The prospect asks you to validate their decision to move forward. Ex. “So do you think now is the time for me to ________?”

That last one is very common, especially when you follow my rapport-building methods, because the prospect will like you and trust you on a deep level. As a result, they ask for your advice about whether or not they should move forward.

The bottom line is that when the prospect indicates that they’re ready to buy, sell them.

Tomorrow, we’ll conclude this mini-course with the biggest mistake you can make when a prospect raises an objection and what you should do instead. (My advice is contrary to whatever hardcore sales trainer teaches, but it works, and you don’t end up looking like a jerk.)

Kick butt, make mucho DEEnero!

Dave “It’s Closing Time” Dee

P.S. Want to create and script your entire one-to-many or one-to-one sales presentation? How’d you like to get it done in one-day? Please reply to this email with “Private Consulting” if this interests you. Then, I’ll send you the details.