Have you ever left a sales presentation with a feeling that you’ve just bought? You've bought the "stall", the excuse or the "think it over". In other words, the buyer has done a great job in selling to you!

You may have invested considerable time and effort on call; you've provided the business solution to the buyer's problems; you've given a great product presentation and you've offered the keenest price. The prospect has listened intently and shown interest throughout. But, when you tried to close the sale, he popped out some lame excuse and sold you the stall!

You know it's a stall - you've heard it hundreds of times before from other prospects - and yet you just could not find a way around it to close the sale. It may be "I'll get back to you" or "I'll think it over for a few days". However justifiable the words - it's a still a stall.

There are two sellers on every call - either they'll buy your business product or service or you'll buy their excuses!"

Are you a "professional stall buyer?" Are you subconsciously a "professional stall buyer" - so used to hearing stalls that they're no longer a surprise? When the buyer say's "I'll think it over" do you feel that you have to accept it? If you do, you are not alone! Sellers become conditioned by astute buyers into accepting their stalling tactics, and they believe (quite mistakenly) that there is no way around this situation.

Most sellers tend to do one of two things after they leave a call that hasn't been closed. They will either justify the no-sale as "not in the market" or "couldn't afford" or anything else thatsounds plausible and lets them (the sellers) off the hook.

Or they'll get mad because they know they've been sold to - but, they don't know where or why it went wrong. "The stall came out of the blue, right at the end when I expected them to sign up....." "Everything had gone so well and we got on famously...." "I gave that call everything - I don't know how I could have lost it...." etc etc.

Direct selling techniques for more effective sales closing.

Do you provide unpaid consultancy?

Let's suppose a seller has a sales closing ratio of 1 in 3. Looking back over the last 100 calls, he'll probably see something like this: 100 presentations: 33 sales: 10 impossibles (product unable to do what was required, for instance). That leaves 57 closeable situations where the prospect did not buy what your business is selling.

The seller has provided unpaid consultancy to help the buyer purchase from somebody else’s business!

Today's buyers are great sellers! They will not roll over and hand you their credit cards just because you've done a good product presentation.......but, REMEMBER, they'll gladly accept your free consultation and then sell you the stall!

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there!"

"We're now dealing with this new breed of Super Buyers" Even the hardiest of sellers can be worn down by the repeated rejection and frustration that goes hand-in-hand with losing business sales - especially when they know that, on many occasions, the "think it over" should have been a sale.

We all know that today's buyers are razor sharp. They're also educated and experienced in handling sellers. They have everything on their side - consumer reports, TV Watchdog, newspaper articles plus a vast resource of information on the Web. They're spoilt for choice!

But what do most sellers do to handle this new breed of "super buyer". Nothing. That's right - most sellers do NOTHING. They carry on blaming their low conversions on the economy, the price of their product, the world markets, the weather, the time of year, the buyer - anything that prevents a good look in the mirror!

What do they do to improve their technique? Nothing. What do they invest in improving? You've guessed it - nothing!

Conversely, let's ask the same questions of the top pro sellers and business owners and in particular, what do they do to remain at the top? The answer is - EVERYTHING!

They hunt down business information like hungry wolves. They listen, they question and they observe. They sell through rain, shine and recession. Their bookshelves groan under the weight of books on selling, psychology, motivation, NLP and more. They breathe the business of closing sales. They never think in terms of average weeks. They smell of success.

Sharper than these "super buyers"? You bet! And they don’t have to accept “the stall”.