I’m a private pilot and it recently occurred to me that successfully landing an aircraft is very much like successfully landing a sale.
The same things that can cause a missed sale are the same things that can cause a “missed approach” on final when landing my Beechcraft Bonanza. When this happens, I have to make a very definite and quick decision to abort the landing and “go around”.
Click here to discover how to handle objections and close more sales in less time
As any pilot will tell you, the last critical 2 to 3 seconds of the landing is mostly determined by how well you set yourself and your aircraft up on the “final approach” and all of the work and careful preparation you have done beforehand in getting into the circuit pattern.
There are many things that can challenge a pilot on this final approach like unexpected turbulence, cross wind, windshear etc. However, good training and lots of practice prepares us for the “unexpected”.
Selling and landing a sale is just like that.
So many sales people (and even some sales managers who should know better) that I meet, say “Teach me how to close the sale and then I’ll be successful in sales.”
Like landing a plane, that final 2 to 3 seconds of your sales interview when you want to land the sale, is determined by how well you’ve set up your “approach” to this “landing”. If you are skilled and have for example, asked the right questions to determine your prospect’s real needs early in the process, then you will probably be making the right recommendation. If you then know how to make a persuasive presentation without being “high pressure” and overbearing, then you’ll be on the “glide slope” for a nice landing.
Like flying, knowing how to do these things properly comes from good training, re-training and practice, practice, practice. All of the most successful sales professionals that I know have invested hundreds of hours and thousands of their own dollars in this training.
Our recent 4 day TOP GUN® Sales Bootcamp in Melbourne reminded me of this. We had a mixture of very experienced and very successful sales people, and people new to sales too who were deadly serious about their success. Yet I see sales people who think they can learn by trial and error and just pick up the skills along the way.
Can you imagine if pilots took that approach?
Don’t laugh, when ultralight aircraft were first introduced into Australia in the 1970′s this is exactly what happened. People would build these aircraft themselves and then teach themselves to fly. They were killing
themselves all over Australia for years until the Government changed the legislation to mandate proper pilot training.
If you’ve done every thing right before you begin closing the sale, then will you smoothly land the sale?
Well not always. When you are on final and just about to land, just like flying there may be some unexpected “turbulence” in the form of objections.
Again if you’ve been trained properly you’ll know exactly how to handle these situations. If you haven’t, then your sale may crash and burn at the end of the runway.
There are strategies for handing objections properly and in
my experience 90% of sales people don’t know anything about them. We teach them and it makes all of the difference.
Make sure your skills are up to speed. Happy landings!
About Wayne Berry
