Closing the Deal Systematically

While automotive jobs can often be sold on the spot, architectural deals can be tougher to close. According to Rick Davis, president of Building Leaders Inc. and a sales and sales management education specialist for the building materials industry, closing a sale is not an event, but rather a series of meetings and little victories that start with the first phone call.

Davis offers the following suggestions for your architectural sales people:

Get the First Meeting - Successfully scheduling the first face-to-face meeting with a potential customer is a small victory. This is the door that opens toward a new account.

Don't Push for the Instant Sale - Listen carefully as a potential customer explains his or her challenges. Before you determine how your product or service can solve their problems, make sure you truly understand their business or living situation.

Establish a Reasons for the Second Meeting - When all else fails, you can always say that you'd like time to digest the information about their circumstances before making a sales pitch. Then, schedule the next meeting while you are still in front of the client to lock it in.

Always Keep the Focus on Your Client - Use a follow-up meeting to reiterate what you learned from a previous meeting. Show how you processed the information and can support their needs. While building a personal relationship, explain specifically how they will benefit from your product or service.

Follow-up - Use every resource available to you for following up personally with a potential customer. Send a written thank you note, e-mail a relevant article or document, drop off a follow-up package of materials, call and/or leave a message.

Davis says the deal is often closed somewhere along the way. One of these techniques could be the defining factor in your customer's choice.

"Maybe [it happened] when you connected personally while discussing your local sporting team," he says. "Perhaps when you sent a written thank you note that demonstrates your professional and personal courtesy. It's possible the close even happened when the bid was presented and the rest of the sales process was merely an administrative formality. You may never know. However, what you will always know is that by systematically tackling the ground work, you've done everything possible to build a relationship that should lead to future business."