Become a Home Based Travel Agent

A Sales Game Plan – Part 6
Closing the sale by overcoming an objection
By Cory Andrichuk

Happy August everyone… This is the six and last article that will help you establish a successful Sales Game Plan to grow your business.   My intention is to bring you personal, specific, and creative steps to grow your sales into better profits and I want to emphasize how important it is to ensure you have an overall business plan in place before trying to improve your salesmanship! 

5 main steps from my previous articles:

#1.  Sales success always starts with a positive and healthy mindset which is all about helping people from the heart.

#2.  The next part is prospecting which is all about working smarter rather than harder to find and get in front of your potential customers.

 #3. The third part is establishing rapport where you ensure your target audience is comfortable with you, your brand, and the potential message you are going to deliver.

 #4.  The fourth part is qualifying your customer by uncovering their needs.  Customers don’t often know what they want and need.  It’s up to you to find out with the right qualifying questions.  

#5.  The fifth part is selling the Features and Benefits of a travel product and YOU the actual sales person.  Remember people buy people they like, so just become likeable and you should close more sales!

Now we are ready to talk about the last step that I have combined into one which is all about closing the sale!  If you have followed the last 5 steps, closing a sale can sometimes take as little as 30 seconds or as long as 3 hours to 3 months… the bottom line is that it takes time and you should always be conscious of where you are in your sales game plan.  By taking the time to go through each step, and establish someone’s trust by earning their relationship, the opportunity to overcome an objection and close the sale becomes so much easier. 

Two key’s to closing a sale are that you might have to overcome an objection or two, and secondly, and probably THE most important key to selling is to always remember to ask for the sale!!!

I want you to adjust your mindset and EXPECT objections ahead of time, but to think proactively about how your prospect/ customer will react to you and your offer!  By thinking proactively about potential objections, and addressing them during your presentation, you are less likely to get caught with that deer in the headlights look when a question is posed to you. 

Obviously, you never become angry or defensive when any objection is raised.  Rather, you simply turn the objection around to your advantage by regarding it as an opportunity to collect more information about your customer.  IN FACT… encourage your prospect to raise as many questions as they can to ensure they feel totally confident in you, your product knowledge, and your business!  (Don’t pretend to know everything either… If you do not have the answer up front, be honest, and promise to get back to them within a reasonable time-frame). 

The second key to closing a sale is all about asking for the sale and that it should be a natural progression in the entire sales process.  This doesn't have to be difficult, yet most of us make it out to be more complicated than it really is.  All you have to do is recommend the appropriate product and ask `Would you like me to book that for you...PAUSE… and wait for the answer.  Be confident, Be Direct, Be yoU!  Closing the sale is the process of asking for the business and giving the prospect or customer an opportunity to buy.  Again, it does not have to be complicated, dramatic, or be difficult.  It’s an easy process once you have taken the time to establish rapport, earn a relationship, uncover the need for your product and or service, present your product and or service as a solution to their problem or need, and then just simply ask for the business. 

Here are some closing statements to use in your own travel business:

1. “May I make a suggestion?” 
2. “Why don’t we get out our calendars and schedule a time to meet face to face and talk further...”
3. “I can have the quote ready by... Does that work for you?”
4. Why don’t we call the cruise line today and check on availability….?

I cannot stress that closing the sale is actually just the beginning.  It’s the beginning of everything else that you do in your travel business.   Closing sales is just as important as marketing, networking (online and off), and prospecting (lead generating tasks).  You cannot have one without the other… just like you cannot have profits without sales… and sales without marketing.  As a micro-business travel entrepreneur, you need to become an expert on juggling the plethora of daily tasks required to survive and thrive in the 21^st century.  It all starts with your business plan, a marketing plan, and a sales strategy that you can manage and measure.   As the great sales saying goes… nothing happens until you sell something!  Now go sell you and your travel business with the six steps to a winning sales game plan!

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR OWN CLOSING STATEMENTS THAT WORK FOR YOU?  Email me directly at cory@brandUcoaching.com