Yesterday, 50 salespeople gave me their biggest closing obstacles – about 25 – when we combined them all. I showed them the four bases in Baseline Selling and defined what must happen for the salesperson to reach each base. Then I asked them to identify the specific base paths where the closing obstacles should have been dealt with. Closing takes place at home plate and sure enough, all 25 of those closing obstacles actually should have been dealt with either between 1st and 2nd base or between 2nd and 3rd base. The moral of the story is your salespeople haven’t even earned the right to close until there are not issues that would prevent them from getting the business.

A successful serial entrepreneur who attended my seminar for CEO’s in Montreal today, suggested that there were two kinds of salespeople; those who prospected and went through the motions, only to not close, and those who asked for the business. Give me a break!

I recently discovered Joe and Mike’s Sales Roundup podcast, targeting the IT industry. You can subscribe to Sales Roundup and have each one-hour show delivered right to your desktop or handheld. It’s entertaining and packed with good advice.

Regardless of the reasons your salespeople didn’t get the sale, the issues listed above could have all been dealt with earlier in the selling process. Your job, should you decide to accept a true sales management assignment, is to make sure your salespeople recognize these issues before presenting or proposing a solution.