Are you a salesperson? Do you use sales closing techniques to land a sale? If you answered yes to these questions you probably can recognize the following sales closing techniques, as popularized by Zig Ziglar:

• That price is ridiculous close
• The new decision close
• The alternate of choice close
• The persuasion close
• The three question close

Perhaps you're using these sales closing techniques, yet your sales numbers really aren't that good; the other sales reps in the office have better sales closing ratios, are closing more sales, and are making more money. You may find that odd as you all have access to the same amount of sales leads. You’re closing by the book yet you're not achieving good numbers.

I think I know what your problem is… You're using sales closing techniques. STOP!!! Stop using sales closing techniques! The other reps in your office most certainly have.

Picture this… you are buying a used car and the salesman asks you, "Would you rather take delivery of the car on Wednesday or on Thursday?" What would you do? You would probably think to yourself, "Does this weasel take me for a sucker? He's using the alternate of choice close on me."

Do you think that the people you sell to aren't intelligent enough to see through your tactics? They are. They don't want people to use techniques on them. Techniques are for slimy used car salesmen. They want to deal with salespeople that are genuine. And, that's not you if you use sales closing techniques.

The way I see it, when selling in B2B, selling to Vito is like selling to Bruno, just as selling to Italians is like selling to Americans. No matter what your name or nationality people buy from people that they like. That means they buy from genuine people, not people that use sales closing techniques.

By the way, VITO, as popularized by the book Selling To VITO, is short for "Very Important Top Officer." That means that Vito, hold a high corporate position, most likely has a high business intelligence. Don't try to use any of your techniques on him. He'll see right through you, as would Bruno, Tom, Daniel, Bob, Billy, Scott, or even Sandra for that matter. Assume everybody is as intelligent as you, be genuine, and you will close more sales without using sales closing techniques.