If you have successfully applied Customer-Focused Selling concepts, up to and including the negotiation of terms, getting a buyer’s commitment should come naturally. You have earned your customer’s trust, helped with recognition of needs, and proved that your solution is best.

As mentioned earlier, your goal is to open the relationship, not to close the sale.

In the Customer-Focused Selling process, I refer to the abilities needed to ask for the agreed-on order as “commitment skills,” not “closing skills.” This is a major technique in sales training.

Closing skills attempt to get the buyers to commit.

Commitment skills are different because there is MUTUAL COMMITMENT at the point of sale: the customer commits to you, and you commit to the customer.

In the final two roles you play in the process–Teacher and Farmer–are focused on the commitments you make to the customer.

Use these tools in your sales management training. Here are a few non-manipulative ways to ask for commitment:

Ask, “What should be our next step?”

This question is most appropriate for a buyer who has a clear direction of how events should unfold, a lion personality type. This is a simple, honest question that asks your buyer to suggest a commitment to you.

Describe in detail what happens between now and installation, delivery, or commencement of service. If you have an implementation plan, now is the time to share it.

Then, simply ask, “Does that sound acceptable to you?”

Ask, “Would you like to give us a try?”

This commitment question is soft, yet direct, because it asks for a “Yes” or “No” answer.
By now you have come a long way with your prospect. The commitment techniques above are often successful. However, some buyers may still be reluctant. If this is the case, you must deal with the salesperson’s old nemesis–objections.

To learn more about these sales techniques and many others take the time and attend sales training courses.

Recent research has found that the highest producing salespeople are those that work for sales managers with a “hands-on” coaching style. Sales managers that monitor, direct, evaluate and reward their salespeople on a on-going basis; and, these high-performance salespeople were found to have a greater level of commitment to their organizations when they worked for a sales manager with this “hands-on” coaching approach.

Your company can increase sales and reduce sales turnover by installing a culture of coaching within your sales management team.

The role of sales manager just may be the most important job in your company. Sales is the life-blood of every business, and there is a sales manager at the heart of every one of your sales teams.

Has your company provided your sales managers with the skills and tools they need to pump maximum growth and profits out of your sales force?