If you have been in sales for a while, 
chances are you have heard the three letter acronym “ABC” which stands for “Always Be Closing”. This means you should be asking for the order every opportunity you get!
What’s wrong with that? After all, you can spend a lot of time and resources trying to sell your product but if the prospect does not buy it, you have no revenue to show for your efforts!
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to work with two sales people Tim and Chris. Both were equally good at closing deals in their own ways.
Chris would always be closing. Chris would frequently ask his prospect “What would it take to close it today?” He would come up with ways to close the deal whether it was discounts, deadlines or something else.
Tim on the other hand would never ask for the order. The prospects would ask Tim when Tim would be able to get them started. Tim hardly gave any discounts or any deadlines.
Chris had a much higher percentage of product returns compared to Tim.
What’s the secret to Tim’s success?
Tim followed the golden rule that people buy from people they trust. He would spend sufficient time to figure out if the customer would truly benefit from his product or he would recommend another product which would meet customers’ needs better. He would build genuine trust with his customers.
If you believe in Tim’s approach, as a sales manager, how would you train your entire team to follow it?
First create a guided sales process. Then train the entire team. Then evaluate if they are following the guided process.