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24 Techniques for Closing the Sale
Brian Tracy's sales course is packed with 63 powerful minutes of killer sales closing strategies. The RealVideo course shows you powerful tactics that can double or triple your sales closing rate -- and teach you how to sell 50% to 100% of all prospects. Click here to learn more about

"Inherently, each one of us has the substance within to achieve whatever our goals and dreams define. What is missing from each of us is the training, education, knowledge and insight to utilize what we already have."
-- Mark Twain

FACT: Selling is the only profession wherein your potential earnings are beyond what 95% of the world's population could ever earn -- but only if you know how to close the sale.

Selling is a wonderful profession. But oftentimes, because it is difficult to become successful in sales, it is also considered one of the toughest professions in the world.

As a salesperson, you need to be thankful that making the sale is so difficult, because if it were easy, the field would be flooded with amateurs -- and the amount of money you could earn would be greatly reduced. Your job is to find ways to make the sales process easier so that you can become one of the highest paid people in your field -- if not the world.

The Major Challenge in Selling

Closing the sale is perhaps the most stressful and challenging part of the sales process. This is where the rubber meets the proverbial road.

Hi, I'm Brian Tracy -- and there are secrets I know that can unlock the real firepower that lies dormant in your very own selling skills -- and these secrets will change the course of your sales career forever. I’m going to reveal 3 closing secrets that can easily triple your sales in the next 90 days.

You may have heard about my high-powered sales seminars attended by approximately 400,000 men and women each year in 23 countries -- or perhaps you have come across one of my 16 best-selling books or 300 learning programs.

The 3 killer secrets that I'm about to reveal are key excerpts from courses I've taught to salespeople all over the world. Many of the sales professionals who have learned these secrets have gone on to become the biggest money-makers in the sales industry. If you master these lessons, and practice them faithfully, I guarantee that you will be far ahead of the pack.

Killer Closing Secret #1: The Preference Close

The first technique is the Alternative Close -- also called the Preference Close. It is based on the fact that people like to have choices. They don't like to be given what may sound like an ultimatum to either buy it or not buy it.

To apply this technique, you simply structure your close by saying, "Which of these would you prefer, A or B?"

With the alternative close, whichever one your prospect customer selects, you would make a sale either way. You should always try to give the customer two choices. Even if you are selling a single product, you can give him two choices with regard to payment or delivery, for instance.

For example, "Would you like this delivered to your office or to your home address?" "Will that be MasterCard or Visa?" "Would you like the ATM 26 or the ATM 30?" And so on.

Killer Closing Secret #2: The Secondary Close

The second closing technique is the Secondary Close. This is extremely popular. It is a way of helping your customer make a big decision by having him make a small decision that assumes the big decision. Instead of asking the customer to go ahead with the product or service, you ask a question about a peripheral detail, the acceptance of which means that he has decided to buy the larger product.

For example, you could ask, "Would you want this shipped in a wooden crate, or would cardboard be all right?" "Would you like us to include the drapes and rods in the offer?" "Did you want the standard rims or would you like the customized racing rims on your car?"

In each case, if your prospect agrees to or chooses the smaller item, he has indirectly said, "Yes" to the entire offering. People often find it easier to agree to small details than they do to making a larger commitment. That's why this is sometimes called the Incremental Close, where you obtain commitment bit by bit to the entire offer.

Killer Closing Secret #3: The Authorization Close

The third closing technique is the Authorization Close, which is often used to conclude multimillion-dollar transactions.

Here's how it works:

At the end of the sales conversation, you simply ask if the prospect has any questions or concerns that haven't been covered. If the prospect has no further questions or concerns, you take out the contract, open it up to the signature page, place a check mark where the prospect has to sign, and push it over to him saying, "Well then, if you will just authorize this, we'll get started on it right away."

The word "authorize" is better than the word "sign" because it is less threatening. A check mark is better than an X. Offering to "get started right away" is better than sitting there hoping for the best.

However you do it, be prepared to ask for the order in whichever way seems appropriate at the moment.

Brian Tracy is a million-dollar master of peak sales performance and personal success strategies. As the world-renowned creator of 300 video and audio learning programs, and the best-selling author of 16 books, his ideas and approaches are used by most of the big money makers and the superstars of selling. In his RealVideo course, "24 Techniques for Closing the Sale," Brian shows you powerful tactics that can double or triple your sales closing rate -- and teach you how to sell 50% to 100% of all prospects that you come in contact with -- all in just 63 minutes.

The Strange Story of the "Crackpot" Mail-Order Prophet (or) Five Things You Can Learn about Advertising from Dr. Frank B. Robinson
by Joe Vitale

Are you having trouble selling your product or service? Are you feeling like the chaotic state of the world prevents you from succeeding? Are you wondering how you can increase your sales in the most cost effective ways? Are you feeling like your competition is breathing down your neck?

Many of my clients feel the same way. They want to succeed, to make a nice living in their business, but they feel overwhelmed, uncertain, and even despondent. They feel they have too much competition. They feel marketing doesn't work, or takes too much work. They feel people don't have enough money today to spend on what they are selling.

And that's why I think it's time to reveal the strange story of the long forgotten "crackpot" mail-order prophet.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s the average person didn't have enough money to feed themselves or their family, let alone enough extra cash to order books through the mail. Yet during those lean years one man made a fortune selling books and courses entirely by mail. His name was Frank B. Robinson. He founded "Psychiana," the world's eighth largest religion and the world's largest mail-order religion.

You may never have heard of him or his movement before today. But during the 1930s and 40s, Robinson's name traveled around the world. Millions of people read his books, studied his lessons, and practiced his methods. The press called his positive thinking, new thought religion a "media business" because Robinson advertised so heavily.

In 1928 Robinson wrote an ad for his new philosophy that began with the headline, "I TALKED WITH GOD." An advertising agency in Spokane, Washington said the ad would never work. But Frank believed in his message and trusted his hunches. He borrowed $2,500 from people he barely knew, spent most of it on printing his lessons, and invested $400 to place his ad in "Psychology Magazine."

That ad pulled 5,300 responses. Robinson ran it in numerous magazines and it always pulled a 3% to 21% response. Within a year he had a full-time job fulfilling requests for his books and lessons, soon shipping a million pieces of mail a year out of his office in Moscow, Idaho. The post office in that little town had to move into a bigger building to handle all the mail.

Robinson's ads appeared in 140 newspapers, 180 magazines, and on 60 radio stations, all at the same time. His postal bill in 1938 amounted to $16,000 and his printing bill hit $40,000. He received 60,000 pieces of mail a day, reached more than two million people, and sent his message to 67 countries---all within one year of running his first ad.

"Advertising is educating the public to who you are, where you are, and what service you have to offer," Robinson wrote. "The only man or organization who should not advertise is the one who has nothing to offer."

What can we learn from Frank B. Robinson?

1. He believed in his product. When you don't believe in what you are trying to sell, it shows. It'll show in your lack of commitment to your marketing, in poor advertising, in poor service, or in other ways. As I mention in my book, The Seven Lost Secrets of Success, sincerity is one of the "lost secrets" to success. Robinson had sincerity. While his movement made tons of money, Robinson accepted only $9,000 a year as his salary. Whether you call him a crackpot or a savior, he believed in his product. He knew he had something people wanted. In fact, Robinson sold his religious lessons with a money-back guarantee.

2. He advertised relentlessly. If you don't tell people that you exist, they won't know it. The reason you aren't aware of Robinson or his movement today is because he's dead. (He died in 1948). No one is advertising his message. Without consistent and persistent advertising to educate the public, the world won't know of your business.

3. He tracked his results. Robinson believed in the spiritual world, but he also knew he lived on the earth plane where numbers matter. He tracked responses from his ads to know what worked and what didn't. For example, astrology magazines brought him an 18% response to his ads while national weekly papers brought 3%. Knowing that, Robinson could invest more money in larger ads in the better pulling magazines. Find out where your business comes from and focus more advertising in that area.

4. He continued to create products. Robinson knew once people tasted his goods, they would want more. He wrote 28 books during his short lifetime. These, along with his correspondence courses, gave him a deep product line. Your current satisfied customers will always be your goldmine. Create more for them to buy.

5. He remained optimistic. Despite the harsh reality of the Great Depression years, and despite competition from religious institutions that had been around for centuries, Robinson flourished. He didn't believe anyone or anything could stop him. When you have that strong of an inner conviction, nothing CAN stop you. If you think you have competition with a similar business in the same town, consider what it must have been like for Robinson to have such empires as the Catholic Church, the US government, and famous ministers and politicians trying to close him down!

Whatever you may think of Robinson or "Psychiana," you have to admit he knew how to advertise his business.

"After all, it's the results in human lives that count," he wrote in his 1941 book, The Strange Autobiography of Frank B. Robinson. "Talk is cheap."

What are you going to do now to increase your business? Remember, talk is cheap!

Joe Vitale is widely recognized by many as the greatest copywriter in America. Can you beat him? Try out the "World's Shortest Advertising IQ Test" and see how you stack up: Create Advertising That Sells