One of the concepts you learn as a professional sales person is the concept of gaining agreement. There are many sales development training programs on how to close a sale, but very few teach how to gain agreement throughout the sales process. Failing to gain agreement throughout the sales process is one of the reasons why many sales people struggle when it’s time to close a sale.

Gaining agreement involves getting your prospect in the habit of saying “yes”. Helping your prospect to develop this habit should start when you are first introduced to your prospect. Because you want to follow a sales process, your first “sale” is to sell your prospect on going through the sales process. Often prospects will ask about the price of your product or service early on in the sales process. Some are just “kicking tires” and others are seriously interested in what you are offering. Gaining agreement from your prospect to allow you to discuss the needs and wants they have is a great first step that will move you closer to your goal of doing business with the prospect. If the person is truly a prospect for what you have to offer, they will agree to go through the sales process with you.

Another opportunity to gain agreement with your prospect is when you are in the fact finding part of the sales process. You can do this by asking questions that confirm your understanding for what the prospect is looking for. For instance, if you sell business equipment and the prospect says they want a model that has speed and multiple features, you can gain agreement using that information. You can say “‘So you believe that it is important to have the model that will ensure efficiency and reliability?” This is another way of training your prospect to say “yes”. You have to be careful here not to ask rhetorical questions that have no value. You want to ask a question that gets a “‘yes”‘ and at the same time has substance.

During your sales presentation is another fantastic opportunity to gain agreement. You want to make sure that throughout your sales presentation you create opportunities where you can ask questions that will gain agreement from your prospect. A question such as: “‘would you agree that this is a benefit in serving your customers?”‘ is a great question that not only tests to see how receptive your prospect is to your presentation, but also further develops the habit of saying “yes”.

If you gain agreement throughout the sales process, you help your prospect to develop the habit of saying yes and greatly increase the probability to close the sale.