How to Close More Building Sales Through Listening, Value and Follow-Through

Originally Published as: Strategies for Closing a Sale

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Somewhere along the way, salespeople were taught that closing is a moment.

It’s the big finish. The point where you reach into the sales toolbox, pull out your favorite closing technique, say the magic words, and get the customer to sign on the dotted line.

I’ve never bought into that.

After more than four decades in sales, I’ve come to believe something very different.

You don’t close a sale at the end. You earn it all the way through.

That’s especially true in post-frame.

A lot of the people reading this aren’t sitting in a sales office all day. You may own the company. You might have been checking a crew at 7:00 this morning, meeting with a building prospect at 10:00, figuring material at noon, and answering a customer call from your truck later that afternoon.

Selling is simply one more hat you wear.

Others work specifically in sales for a post-frame builder, maybe even a larger operation with a sales team and sales manager.

Either way, the fundamentals don’t change.

By the time you ask for the business, most of the work should already be done. You’ve asked questions. You’ve listened. You understand what the customer is trying to accomplish. You’ve helped them work through the choices. You’ve established value and built trust.

At that point, asking for the order shouldn’t feel like a dramatic moment.

It should feel like the logical next step.

You’re Not Selling a Pole Barn

I’ve given a talk called “You’re Not Selling Pole Barns.”

Why?

Because you aren’t.

Yes, the customer may tell you they want a 40-by-64 building. They may want two overhead doors, a certain roof pitch, black steel, a row of windows, a cupola, wainscot, or any number of other things.

Those are specifications.

They aren’t necessarily why the customer is buying the building.

That 40-by-64 may finally give somebody a place to restore the cars they’ve been collecting for 20 years.

It may be the shop that allows a small contractor to add equipment, hire another employee, and grow his business.

Maybe they want horses.

Maybe they’re tired of the boat, camper, lawn mower, side-by-side, and everything else fighting for space in the garage.

Maybe this is the barndominium they’ve been dreaming about for a decade.

Maybe they want a place where the kids and grandkids can gather on Saturday afternoon.

That’s what they’re buying.

You’re selling what happens inside the building. You’re selling a lifestyle.

That matters when we talk about closing because people rarely make a major investment based solely on a list of posts, trusses, steel panels, doors, windows, and fasteners.

They buy what all those pieces will allow them to do.

Your job is to figure out what that is.

Closing Starts With Listening

One of the most valuable sales skills I know is pretty simple.

Ask a question.

Then shut up and listen.

Simple? Yep.

Easy? Not always.

We know buildings. We know metal roofing. We know doors, windows, fasteners, ventilation, insulation, trim packages, snow loads, and everything else that goes into getting a building from an idea to a finished structure.

It’s tempting to show the customer how much we know.

Slow down.

First, find out what they know about what they want.

“What are you going to use the building for?”

“What matters most to you?”

“How do you see yourself using it five years from now?”

“What made you decide that now is the time to build?”

Those answers matter.

A customer who wants a 40-by-64 woodworking shop and a customer who wants a 40-by-64 place to store equipment may need the same square footage. They are not buying the same building.

The better I understand the why, the better I can help with the what.

That changes the close because I’m no longer trying to convince somebody to buy a building.

I’m helping them get something they’ve already told me they want.

Build Agreement Along the Way

Closing doesn’t happen only at the end.

It happens in little decisions throughout the process.

Call them mini closes if you want. I’m less concerned with what we call them than I am with recognizing their value.

We agree that 40-by-64 is the right size.

Good.

We determine where the overhead doors need to be based on how the customer will use the building.

Good.

We talk through ventilation, insulation, windows, colors, roof style, or whatever else matters to this particular project.

Another decision made.

These aren’t tricks designed to maneuver somebody toward yes. They’re checkpoints.

Are we still headed in the right direction?

Are we solving the problem the customer came to us with?

If we’ve worked through those decisions together, the final proposal shouldn’t arrive as some giant surprise. The customer has been part of building the solution.

That makes the final decision much more natural.

Price or Investment?

There is a price attached to every building.

No getting around that.

But there is also an investment attached to what that building is going to provide for the next 10, 20, 30, or 40 years.

That’s a different conversation.

If you make the entire sales process about price, don’t be surprised when the customer makes the final decision based entirely on price.

Of course budget matters. People have real numbers they need to work within. Pretending otherwise would be foolish.

Our job is to help the customer understand what they’re getting for their investment.

What is the value of the better door?

What does proper ventilation mean over the life of the building?

If you’re putting a quality metal roofing system on that building, does it make sense to save a few bucks with a fastener that may not offer the same longevity?

Would spending a little more today on the right size building prevent the customer from saying, “I wish we’d gone another 10 feet,” three years from now?

Those are legitimate conversations.

And this is where our suppliers matter too. A good supplier doesn’t simply give the builder another item to put on a quote. They help that builder understand the value of the product well enough to explain it to the end user.

Features are nice.

Value closes sales.

If You’re Afraid of Your Price, Your Customer Will Be Too

Here’s one I’ve watched happen more times than I can count.

The proposal is ready.

You go through the building.

Then comes the number.

“The total investment is $86,500.”

Silence.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three.

I’ve been in that moment more times than I can count. I like to talk—I really do—but I’ve learned the hard way that the second you start filling that silence, you’re not selling anymore… you’re negotiating against yourself. I’ve literally caught myself halfway through a sentence thinking, “What are you doing? Nobody asked you to discount it.” And I had just to stop talking and let it sit.

Now the salesperson gets uncomfortable.

“Well, I might be able to sharpen my pencil a little.”

The customer hasn’t said anything.

“We could probably change a couple things and get that down.”

Still nothing.

“I could check and see if there’s anything else we can do.”

Congratulations.

You just negotiated with yourself.

Worse yet, you may have created a price objection that didn’t exist.

If you are afraid of your price, you will make your customer afraid of your price.

Present the number confidently. Explain what the customer is getting. Make sure there aren’t any unanswered questions.

Then be quiet.

Sometimes silence is your best friend.

The customer may be thinking about financing. They may be comparing your number with something else they’ve seen. They may simply be processing the fact that they are about to spend $86,500.

Give them a minute.

Don’t buy back the sale.

If there’s an objection, let the customer tell you what it is.

Then you can deal with the real issue instead of fixing something that wasn’t broken.

Don’t Ignore the Elephant

That doesn’t mean we wait until the end to uncover every concern.

If there’s an elephant in the room, talk about it.

Maybe the customer has another quote.

Maybe the project is pushing the top end of their budget.

Maybe husband and wife don’t completely agree on the size.

Maybe they’re worried about timing.

Maybe they’re trying to decide between building now and waiting until next spring.

You don’t need an interrogation.

You need a conversation.

“What else are you looking at?”

“What concerns do you still have?”

“Is there anything we haven’t covered that could keep you from moving ahead?”

I’d rather know that early enough to have an honest conversation than discover it when I ask for the order.

There’s another benefit.

Customers appreciate people who are willing to discuss the hard stuff.

Trust isn’t built by pretending there are no concerns.

It’s built by helping work through them.

Earn the Right. Then Ask.

Eventually, you have to ask for the business.

I believe deeply in relationships. I believe people do business with people they know, like, trust, and believe will answer the phone after the check clears.

But relationship selling still includes selling.

There comes a point when you’ve listened, helped design the right building, answered the questions, handled the concerns, and presented a fair investment.

You’ve earned the right to ask.

So ask.

You don’t need a fancy close.

You don’t need pressure.

You certainly don’t need some line you learned at a sales seminar in 1987.

“Shall we move forward?”

That’s it.

And here comes that silence thing again.

Ask the question.

Then let them answer it.

When Yes Means Yes

Here’s another place salespeople get themselves in trouble.

The customer says, “Let’s do it.”

And we keep selling.

Stop.

They bought the building.

You’re done.

I’ve seen people talk themselves right back out of an order because they couldn’t recognize when the selling part of the conversation was over.

Once they say yes, move to what happens next.

Thank them.

Explain the deposit, paperwork, engineering, scheduling, site preparation, or whatever the next steps are in your process.

Then deliver what you promised.

Because getting the signature may close the sale, but it opens the relationship.

No Might Mean No

And sometimes, after doing everything right, the answer is still no.

That’s sales.

Maybe another builder gets the job.

Maybe your price really is higher.

Maybe the customer decides not to build at all.

Sometimes no means no.

Respect it.

But sometimes no means not yet.

Financing changes.

Timing changes.

Businesses grow.

Families change their minds.

The building that isn’t happening this fall may suddenly become very important next spring.

Stay in the game.

That doesn’t mean calling every three days with, “Just checking in.”

Stay useful. Stay relevant. Keep the relationship intact.

And if they buy from someone else? Handle that professionally too.

There will be another building.

There may be a referral.

There may be another opportunity you can’t see today.

I’ve always believed relationships have a much longer shelf life than transactions.

Losing one sale doesn’t mean you have to lose the relationship.

Stay in the game to fight another day.

The Close Usually Happens Before the Close

When I think about the best salespeople I’ve known, very few were great because they knew some magical way to close.

Customers trusted them.

They asked good questions.

They listened.

They knew their products.

They returned calls.

They followed through.

They admitted when they didn’t know something.

They were willing to tell a customer when something wasn’t right for them.

And they understood that helping someone make a good buying decision is a pretty effective way to sell.

For the post-frame builder, closing starts with that first phone call, email, website inquiry, or handshake.

Everything after that either moves the opportunity forward or pushes it backward.

Every question matters.

Every promise matters.

Every follow-up matters.

Every time you say, “I’ll get back to you tomorrow,” and actually do it, matters.

So understand what your customer is really trying to accomplish.

Sell the lifestyle, not just the building.

Help them understand the investment.

Believe in your price.

Get comfortable with silence.

Don’t buy back your own sale.

And once you have truly earned the right, look your customer in the eye and ask the simplest question in sales:

“Shall we move forward?”

Then shut up and let them answer.

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