Always be closing

If you've ever been through a sales seminar or read sales blogs, you've heard the infamous Glengarry Glen Ross line, "A, B, C - Always be closing."

The heartless, cutthroat world of cold-call sales, leads, and egos ranks up there with the "Sell me this pen" test.

(Does anyone actually use that anymore, "Sell me this pen"? I've sat through two interviews where the interviewer put that challenge to me, so, yes, I'd say there are people out there using their Zig Ziglar - Jordan Belfort go-to as a way of testing candidates....)

"Always be closing" is another way of saying everything you do is geared toward the sale - always moving in that direction, always seeing that transaction (an exchange of mutual value) as the successful outcome, always drawing the customer closer and closer into that vulnerability and trust.

Regardless.

And that's where the cold, used-car-salesman stereotype turns sour - when it confronts that twofold measure of sales success or failure: vulnerability and trust.

There's no closing without vulnerability and trust.