Three Common Closing Mistakes

Successful radio advertising pros are often natural at sales. But closing requires more than a winning personality. As any advertising veteran will tell you, closing can be tricky, and there are many places where a false move can delay or derail a sale. You can boost your odds of completing the deal simply by avoiding these three classic closing mistakes:

1.  Not asking for the business.
This is by far the most common mistake in the process. You would think it would be obvious: Either you ask for the business or you don’t. But asking for business is more of an art than a science. Good, clear questions lead to successful closes but are often confused with requests for opinion and ambiguous queries, which do little more than lead to other questions. As a mentor once told me, “ask and you get, don’t and you won’t.”

2. Ignoring the prospect’s signals.
You know selling is more about listening than talking. After you’ve asked closing questions, stop talking. Let the prospect answer. It’s tempting to keep selling when you should be listening, but you’ll do a lot better if you learn to stop when you’ve said enough.

3. Becoming jaded.
Attitude is everything in sales. Don’t let past experience negatively affect your closing techniques. And don’t let your successes cloud the circumstances of the current situation. Getting too caught up in the success or failure of each interaction can also be a problem. The best salespeople treat each new prospect as if they were the first and most exciting customer in town.

One Response to “Three Common Closing Mistakes”

1. beneficial Says:
   November 3rd, 2008 at 3:11 pm

   what is the best way to go about selling recruitment for the radio? i have just started this job and i would like any advice i can get on effectively selling recruitment for the radio. thanks

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