But they told me to use this closing

I recently received e-mail from a plumbing technician. His name is Mike and he is from Nashville, Tennessee. Mike is a plumbing technician and runs service plumbing. Mike has been running his own calls for about a year and is struggling. Mike has a 65% close rate.
Mike’s problem- CLOSING.

Every salesman has had problems with closing. It’s nothing new, but you would think that Mike should have nearly a 100% close rate. You see, the customer called the plumber because he had a problem that needed expert service and repair. Mike’s plumbing company has been running service for about five years and is slowly building up a very confident customer base. But Mike still loses calls and the customer called Mike to fix the problem!

I asked Mike if he could identify the problem and asked him to tell me about a service call he has lost recently. Mike stated that at a recent faucet install, the customer said he had to think about it. After spending 30 minutes going over the new faucet, Mike left without closing the call. He said that when he arrived he had the customer laughing and thought the call was going good. The customer stated that he needed to get his son’s advice. Mike asked the customer, "So your son is good at making decisions. Aren’t you the one who taught him that?" I asked Mike why on earth would he insult the customer. Mike said " But they told me to use that closing." I asked Mike if he uses that "closing" a lot. He said he has about twenty scripted closings that he uses. What? Twenty different closings? He said that he has something for every customer’s objection. Mike has a problem all right. He knows nothing about sales. He knows nothing of being the expert. He has no idea how to build trust, and when you build trust you build…value.

Mike has been taught that in order to sell effectively he has to sell himself first. More and more techs are learning the hard way But the reality is in order to close you need to be perceived as an expert.

There is a belief in a lot of the sales training seminars for service plumbing that the closing has to be scripted or needs some kind of comeback that is to try to persuade the customer. These are called "old school" sales techniques and with today’s educated customer, I can see why Mike loses a lot of calls. The closing starts when you walk in the door. Everywhere I go to teach, I hear the stories of techs losing calls because at one time or another they were taught to use "old school" sales techniques. They forget that instead of trying to "close" the sale they should be mindful of keeping a customer for life. It’s a shame; plumbing companies spend thousands of dollars on sales training each year and many are just getting "wowed." They end up with motivated plumbing technicians instead of educated salesmen.

You know it is a reality. The "old school" sales techniques are one reason why plumbers get a bad rap. I tell you the truth; today’s customers are more educated and will not put up with a song and dance. It’s insulting. Today’s consumer does not have the time or patience for Mr. Personality. They called a professional expert to fix the problem.

I’m not saying you should go into a call and not be yourself. That would be insulting to you. What I am saying is that the "old school" sales technique days are over. With so much competition in the service plumbing industry when every service contractor is fighting for every customer, it’s time for plumbing service contractors to reevaluate their sales practices and start investing in 21st century sales training programs. It’s time to start educating our technicians on solution-based selling instead of memorizing twenty scripted closings.