As we drove back to airport I was asked why I went for close in that meeting, it wasn’t staged as a closing call. Simple. We had already presented, positioned, and nurtured our solution – we had done what we were supposed to do, it was time for our prospect to either buy or tell us why they wouldn’t. Either way, we win.

Some sales people are afraid to ask for an order. I understand many of their reasons; none are acceptable. Fear of rejection or ending a business relationship is among top reasons many fail to close. Lack of confidence in their solution or concern of being pushy is others.

Unfortunately, not all of reps kept it up. Within weeks, some of rep's sales had slipped back to their original level. Another listening survey showed cause. Each of reps whose sales were down had slipped back into their old way of operating. It was as if a giant rubber band had been stretched during training, and now it was returning to its original size. Should we be surprised? I'm not. For years these reps had been trained to operate in a lecture mode. They read scripts and gave same pitch to every caller. Now we were asking them to change, and change takes time.