Anyone who has been in sales for more than two weeks has probably heard the cliché of “Always Be Closing.” There is a lot of confusion surrounding the true meaning of this term and strategy. In short, closing is helping your prospect to reach a decision. If you’ve been working with your prospect to create a good understanding of her situation, chances are you’ve created a decent level of rapport. When you understand the prospect’s situation, this often allows you to present a solution that will be a win-win for you and your prospect. If you feel that what you have to offer will sincerely benefit your prospect then you have a responsibility to help that prospect reach a decision.

Often times, our prospects need us to ask closing questions and that’s what we’re there to do. This does not mean that you need to come across as pushy or manipulative. If this is the case, then you haven’t done your job leading up to the close. You haven’t proven to the prospect that you understand her situation and provided evidence that what you have to offer will be a good fit for her. If you have, then the close should come naturally as the result of mutual effort toward helping the prospect to accomplish, fix, or avoid something. The process leading up to the closing question is the most important part of the close. In that sense, we are, in fact, “always closing.” It just doesn’t need to mean we are being pushy or manipulative.