I tried to convince my publisher to name my second book, The Art of Commitment-Gaining. They called it The Lost Art of Closing. Some people equate the word “closing” with a self-oriented, pushy, high-pressure form of selling that is now so…

It is always a no until it’s a yes.

When your success requires that you ask people for commitments, you can expect to hear no as many—or more times than you hear yes. It is the nature of the endeavor we call selling, and no one, no matter how…

There are ways to speed up your sales process; many—if not most—are unhealthy. You can rush through the process, not giving the conversations your client needs the appropriate time and attention. You can speed past some of the necessary…

One of the most important trends in B2B sales today is the customer’s strong desire for consensus before moving forward with an initiative. Another trend, one that closely follows consensus, is an increase in the number of stakeholders who believe…

I am unaware of any sales organization or salesperson who believes they can execute a “one-call close” in a complex sale, though I do believe there must be a few. I don’t believe that I have ever witnessed a salesperson try to close a complex…

In The Lost Art of Closing, I wrote about the ten commitments you need in a typical B2B sale. In that book, I identified two rules to acquire these commitments, the first of which is that you must trade enough value to create an imbalance in your…

You’ve had a first meeting with your dream client. Now you believe that you need to follow up. This means that one or more of these things is true:

One: You didn’t not gain a commitment at the close of the meeting.

It is your responsibility in…

It was one year ago today that I published my second book, The Lost Art of Closing: Winning the 10 Commitments That Drive Sales.

A lot of people don’t know that authors do not get to name their books. Because the publisher purchases the book…

Here are the top two reasons some people in sales struggle to gain commitments, both of which are very difficult to overcome: 1) an aversion to conflict, and 2) believing their ask will be greeted with an automatic “no.”

On Being Conflict…

We tend to think of the final close as being the most difficult to obtain. But this isn't true. Here is a lis of the commitments you need to gain by degree of difficulty. These three commitments are relatively easy to gain. Even signing the…