The Perfect Close: The Secret To Closing Sales by James Muir
James is a professional sales trainer, speaker and coach. As Vice President of Business Development a major healthcare consulting firm, he is in the trenches daily with sales reps educating, coaching and taking on the challenges of the day.
And, just a few interesting facts: he is a musician, an organic chemistry buff and a regular listener to The Marketing Book Podcast!
The Host’s Perspective:
With a book title like The Perfect Close, you may be lumping this book in with so many other inane books on closing techniques. I did, when I first heard saw the title.
But it’s not. In fact, the author compares closing techniques to fad diets. He even says “I generally hate sales tricks and manipulative techniques.”
The truth is, the closing technique at the heart of The Perfect Close is just two questions which are outlined in chapter 12 of the book. But if you don’t read the chapters that precede chapter 12 you won’t appreciate why those two questions work so well. But let’s back up and talk about closing. Closing is anything that puts a customer in a position involving some kind of commitment.
In the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, Alec Baldwin’s character screams at his salesmen to “always be closing.” But in The Perfect Close, James Muir presents research that proves just how ineffective that approach actually is.
But on the other hand, studies have found that a majority of salespeople now don’t use any kind of closing techniques. The problem with that is that sales don’t close themselves.
The Perfect Close presents a method to closing that is nearly always successful in gaining commitments from customers throughout the sales process, is zero pressure for the buyer and the seller and involves just two questions.
If you’re suspicious of closing techniques that are an insult to the intelligence of the buyer (and seller) and are longing to separate the signal from the noise as it relates to closing techniques that actually work in this new era of the super-informed, buyer-controlled sales process, you’ll want to read The Perfect Close and use all the related worksheets and resources that come with the book.
Listen to the Interview:
Show Notes
The Perfect Close: The Secret To Closing Sales – The Best Selling Practices & Techniques For Closing The Deal by James Muir
Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship by Mahan Khalsa and Randy Illig
Consultive Selling by John Brennan
SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham
Stop Selling and Start Leading: How to Make Extraordinary Sales Happen by James M. Kouzes ,Barry Z. Posner, and Deb Calvert
James Muir’s Website (Puremuir.com)
Always Be Closing scene from Glengarry Glen Ross:
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