Tag: audience mastery

If you want to have a prosperous close, you have to control the sales environment. Again, the close is the portion of your presentation that is specifically devoted to selling your product or service.

One of the quickest ways to lose control is to pass out your order form too early.

Picture it. What do you do when someone hands you a printed form? You start reading or scanning it.

So, if you hand out your form before you’ve had a chance to sell the audience on the specifics of your program, you’re going to lose them to their own thoughts and reaction to your prices.

You want them to feel excited and inspired by the results they’re going to get from your program before its price even enters the equation.

That’s why I say sell them on the results first, and then about 85% into your close, signal to your assistants that it’s time to pass out the forms.

Under no circumstances should the audience have the order form in hand before you even start your speech. That is sales suicide. The audience would just shut down, thinking you only want to sell to them, and wouldn’t listen to you at all.

Low Barrier to Entry

On your order form, don’t make it difficult for a person to buy your product or service.

You want your form to be clear, easy to read, and with a low barrier to entry, which means simple and manageable payment plans, a written service guarantee, and all of your contact details.

It's also a nice touch to have a photograph of yourself printed on the form for personalization.

If you have an ezine or a newsletter, you can also include a paragraph that, as part of their purchase, they’re getting a free subscription. Just make sure to use a professional ezine service, so that it’s easy for them to opt out later, if they choose.

Get What You Need as Well

Before the buyers leave your table, read over their form and be certain that you’ve collected everything you need to process their order ~ credit card number, name, address, phone number, and email address ~ and be sure that you can read it.

There’s nothing worse than getting home and finding incomplete credit card numbers, missing phone numbers, and illegible email addresses!

Just take a minute to read it over before you thank them for the order. You’ll both be glad you did.

They Want What You Have

You have to remember that your audience actually wants the information that you have ~ and they’re willing to pay for it. All they’re really looking for are these five things:

Are you credible?
Have you done this in the past?
Do you have good results?
Is it a good product?
And is the price right?

By this point in your presentation, you’ve covered four out of five. Unfortunately, the fifth is often a swing and a miss. That’s why I’m going to show you the best ~ and proven ~ pricing strategies next time.

When I’m doing a 90-minute presentation, I don’t actually move into the close until I determine that the audience is ready to buy my program or service. (The close is the last part of your talk, where you present the benefits, features, and cost of what you’re selling that day.)

How in the world do I determine that the audience is ready to buy?

I test, which I’ll explain in a moment, and I also observe.

For instance, people in the audience taking notes is a very good sign. It means they’re really interested in what I’m saying.

Conversely, if people are sitting in the audience with their arms crossed, and there’s not a whole lot of response going on, I haven’t gotten through to them yet. So I actually need to change what I’m doing or I won’t get many sales.

Test Their Readiness to Buy
I actually test the audience’s interest and engagement throughout my speech.

Several times, I’ll ask, “Is this making sense?” while raising my own hand. Then I see how many people in the audience are raising their hands as well. This tells me how many people are with me.

Until the majority of the hands go up in response to that question, I keep going and transforming my talk.

This requires me to do a little thinking on my feet. I may bring in other stories or testimonials or whatever I think is necessary to show the audience why they need the information I have. I do that until most of the audience is raising their hands.

Then I know they’re ready for a “test close.”

I’ll ask, “How many of you think that this would benefit you? How many of you would really like to double your income in the next 30 to 60 days?” I raise my hand, and look at theirs.

If their hands aren’t up, they haven’t bought what I’m selling yet, and I’m not moving into the close until they do.

Now, obviously, if I’m on someone else’s stage, at a certain point, I have to close. I can’t be booted off the stage without closing. But, also, I can’t force or oversell the close.

The truth is, you don’t actually sell during the close. You sell prior to it. Think about it, if you haven’t sold them on the value of your program when you’re showing them in detail how it has transformed your and other people’s lives, you’re unlikely to sell them on it later.

However, once you have sold them on the value of what you’re offering, once there’s a sea of hands in that room, you can safely move into the close. You can be confident that there will be a clamor for the back of the room ~ and a very nice payday for you and your promoter ~ when you’re done.