【本周期刊】为什么我讨厌终结(2)

[原文来自：www.11jj.com]

Duane Sparks杜南•斯巴克斯
[转载出处：www.11jj.com]

Author of Action Selling行动销售作者

WHY I HATE CLOSING.
为什么我讨厌终结

Don’t get me wrong, putting deals together is my favorite thing to do. I just don’t care for the way we talk about it, nor for the way that the breed of salespeople most likely to be called “closers” manipulate customers into buying from them. I hate the whole thing so much that I’m going to dedicate the next three editions of eCoach to the topic of closing. There’s a far friendlier way to be highly effective at selling.

不要误解我的意思，把交易放在一起是我最喜欢做的事情。我只是不喜欢我们谈论它的方式，也不喜欢那些最可能被称为“终结者”的销售人员操纵顾客从他们那里购买的方式。我非常讨厌整件事，所以我要把接下来的三期eCoach奉献给终结的主题。这里有一种更好用的方式来提高销售效率。

What’s a better term than closing? How does Gaining Commitment sound? When I hear the term commitment I think about loyalty. And, loyalty is one of the things we value most in a relationship. A loyalty-based relationship means that what you’ve formed is trustworthy, reliable, faithful, and valuable.

什么是比Closing更好的术语？获得承诺的声音如何？当我听到“承诺”这个词时，我想到的是忠诚。而且，忠诚是我们在一段关系中最珍视的东西之一。一段基于忠诚的关系意味着你形成的是值得信赖的、可靠的、正确的和有价值的关系。

Another reason I prefer “Gaining Commitment” is because it’s a term that can be used throughout the sales cycle with both new and long-term customers. You can gain a commitment for a meeting, gain a commitment to meet with another person in the customer’s organization, gain a commitment to attend a customer outing—you can gain all sorts of commitments that move the customer relationship to a higher level.

我更喜欢“获得承诺”的另一个原因是，它是一个可以在整个销售周期中与新客户和长期客户一起使用的术语。你可以获得一个会议的承诺，获得与客户组织中的另一个人会面的承诺，获得参加客户活动的承诺——你可以获得各种各样的承诺，将客户关系提升到一个更高的层次。

Conversely, it sounds a little snaky to say something like, “I just closed my client on attending our customer-appreciation picnic.” Well, doesn’t it?

相反地，听起来很古怪的话类似“我刚刚和我的客户成交了，参加了我们客户的答谢宴”。很好,不是吗?

I NEVER WANTED TO BE CALLED A “CLOSER”
我从未想过要被称为“终结者”

A closer in baseball is the guy they bring out of the bullpen during the final inning to mow down the last three batters and win the game. The closer is someone who throttles the competition. In baseball, that’s a good thing. In selling, though, customers aren’t the competition, and we aren’t trying to throttle them so we can send them packing. If we have any brains at all, we are trying to start what we hope will be a wonderful, long-term relationship with every customer. We are trying to Gain Commitment.

在棒球比赛中的终结者是他们从候补区拉出的那个人在最后一局中击败最后三名击球手赢得了比赛。终结者就是扼杀竞争对手。在棒球比赛中，这是一件好事。不过，在销售方面，客户并不是竞争对手，我们也没有试图扼杀他们，所以我们可以发送给他们包装。如果我们有任何头脑，我们正努力开始与每个客户建立一种我们所希望的美好的长期关系。我们正在努力获得承诺。

I’ll never forget the feeling I got when I made my very first sale. What a thrill it was. Exhilarating! But, I was selling a product that consumed other products (supplies) that I sold to the customer on an ongoing basis. Unfortunately, I had competitors who also sold those same consumables.

我永远不会忘记我第一次销售时的感受。这是多么令人激动啊。令人兴奋！我在销售一种产品，这种产品消耗了我持续销售给客户的其他产品（供应品）。不幸的是，我的竞争对手也销售了同样的消耗品。

I needed to develop positive relationships with my customers so I could keep selling additional supplies to them. It occurred to me that my real job, always, was to “open” a relationship, not to “close” a sale. The term close wasn’t right 40 years ago, and it certainly isn’t right today. On the other hand, Gaining Commitment from the customer is not only the right thing to do, it sounds and feels like a far better description of what we actually want to accomplish.

我需要与我的客户建立积极的关系，这样我就可以继续向他们销售额外的产品。我突然想到，我真正的工作，总是“开启”一段关系，而不是“终结”一笔交易。“终结”这个词在40年前是不正确的，而且它现在肯定也不是正确的。另一方面，从客户那里获得承诺不仅是正确的事情，它听起来像是对我们实际想要完成的事情的更好的描述。

Action Selling in Action
行动销售 实践案例

AMark Martin is the North American sales director for Fluke Calibration, part of the Test and Measurement segment of Danaher Corp. of Washington, D.C. Martin heads up a team of technical engineers—professionals who don’t think of themselves as salespeople and do not aspire to be salespeople. Gaining Commitment from customers, however—well, that’s another story. Martin explains:

马克·马丁是华盛顿Danaher公司测试和测量部门北美地区的营业副经理，他领导着一个技术工程师团队——专业人士不把自己当成销售人员，也不希望成为销售人员。无论怎么说，获得客户的承诺——这是另一回事了。马丁解释道:

“Our technical people want to help their customers. We didn’t see ourselves as stereotypical salespeople who talk fast and loud. We didn’t want to use sales techniques that included any form of gimmick or manipulation.”

“我们的技术人员想要帮助他们的客户。我们不认为自己是说话又快又大声的销售人员。我们不希望使用包括任何形式的噱头或操纵的销售技巧。”

“One of the great things we learned by taking the course Action Selling Customer Relationship Professional (CRP) was that we could master a logical process that helps customers make good decisions. Our engineers’ whole attitude towards sales shifted 180 degrees following the training.

“通过参加行动销售客户关系专家（CRP）的课程，我们学到的一件很棒的事情是，我们可以掌握一个帮助客户做出正确的决策的逻辑流程。我们的工程师对销售的整体态度在..后转了180度。

“Selling is not something we do to people; it’s something we do for people. With Action Selling CRP we can continue to help our customers and feel great about Gaining Commitment to do business together. It fits perfectly for us.”

“销售不是我们对人们所做的事;它是我们为人们所做的事情。通过行动销售CRP，我们可以继续帮助我们的客户，并对获得合作的承诺感到高兴。它非常适合我们。”