Recently Charles H Green wrote an article on Entrepreneur.com entitled “Stop Trying to Close and Enjoy the Ride”.  He advocates simply being trustworthy and always trying to do what’s right for the customer.  He claims that by doing to the sale will close itself.  Maybe.  Sometimes.

I remember the story Michael Goodman told me about selling an expensive software package to the CEO of a small company.  The CEO was certainly  capable of making the decision.  The CEO was certainly empowered to write the check for a deposit.

The problem was that the lower-level employee back at the office who would be actually using the software said, “If you replace what I’m already using then I quit.” And letting her quit would bring the whole company to a grinding halt.  So much for the sale.

One of the things we teach our students is to lay our proprietary grid over the sale.  The grid’s purpose is to make sure all the bases are covered.  For example, one of the cells in that grid asks “Does the prospect understand the ROI of your solution?”  If he doesn’t see the ROI it really doesn’t matter how much he trusts you, does it?