Did you know that sales are almost never lost at end of sales meetings?

Most coaches don’t understand this, though. They put all their attention into the close and ignore the beginning. They think if they can only deliver the perfect pitch to the prospect at the end of the appointment, they’ll win them over.

It’s almost as if they’re presenting closing arguments in a courtroom to persuade a jury.

How twisted is that?

When a prospect hires you, what are they buying? Your product? Your program?

Sure, but only to a degree. When a prospect hires you, they’re really buying certainty.

Ultimately, certainty is a combination of clarity and confidence.

• Clarity of where you’ll take them
• Confidence that you’ll actually get them there

When a sales appointment doesn’t end in making a sale, it’s usually because the prospect doesn’t feel certain about you or your coaching program.

When a sales appointment doesn’t end with conversion, most coaches think there was a problem with the way they closed. They believe they must have done something wrong at the end or they’d have a new client.

The thing is, sales are almost never lost at the close — they’re lost at the very beginning.

On the last post, we introduced how important the first three to five minutes of a sales appointment are to making a sale at the end.

When a one-on-one sales appointment ends in rejection, it can be really frustrating. It’s completely natural to think back over the entire appointment to try and figure out where it went off the rails.

Did I say something wrong or offensive?

Did I appear too pushy at the close?

Was I too passive?

Most coaches replay the appointment in their minds and truly believe the sale must have been lost somewhere at the close — after all,