The Perfect Close: The Secret To Closing Sales - The Best Selling Practices & Techniques For Closing The Deal

I was reading this book on my Kindle, curled up in my favorite relaxing reading spot, and literally jumped up and ran to my computer so I could take notes - lots of notes. The bookmarks just weren't good enough! I wanted a way to find all the high points and examples quickly so I could put them to use! I can't remember having ever been this excited about a book! The Perfect Close is brilliant - and I can't wait to put its techniques to use. Considering I read it over the Christmas holidays (Can you believe that?), I couldn't put the darn book down until I had read the last page). Here's the scoop: Muir's "Perfect Close" technique is simple and brilliant, especially since he provides quite a few variations and examples. And that would have been enough for 5+ stars for the book. But he doesn't stop there! He also guides us through the entire sales process to a successful close, in great detail. This includes how to create a solid relationship with the prospective client and bring true value to any sales encounter, complete with approaching any sales encounter with the right mindset and the right kind of preparation! He even shares a powerful pose that will help you signal that you do indeed have the right mindset! Another thing I really liked: Muir is so encouraging towards people who are relatively new to sales (including me) - and provides many examples of how they can succeed - and do so easily. This is something that really differentiates his book from many other books on sales and closing. It's also a book (as some reviewers have noted) that's written primarily for B2B sales people, especially those selling to large companies, but much of the information applies just as much to entrepreneurs selling their products and services to smaller companies and fellow entrepreneurs - and even individuals. I'm going to recommend this book to anyone I know who's in sales. While reading this book, I cringed at the mistakes I have made. But I also got really excited as I realized it showed me exactly how to do MUCH better in the future. It's a total game changer! One tiny drawback... The book is much longer than I had anticipated. If I had seen that it was 300 pages long, I wouldn't have bought the Kindle version (long books can be kind of unwieldy on Kindle, especially if they're kind of technical and there's a LOT of detail I want to have at my fingertips). Needless to say, I didn't know, and I'm so glad I bought it and have the information NOW! I just kept wondering why it took so long to get through it... and I'll probably buy the physical version as well for easier access.

I gotta say, I really liked this book. A friend of mine, who is in sales, recommended it. I am doing more "sales" as part of my job, and have been a bit out of my element. Coincidentally, I recently watched GlenGarry Glen Ross, and have been approaching my new responsibilities with trepidation. But this book has completely changed my outlook. First off, this book is not manipulative, using tricks, gimmickry, or used car hi-jinks used to close a sale. Its an honest approach to serving customers. It will help me to keep clients on track, when appropriate, get clients back on track if we have fallen off, and I will feel good when we identify that its not a match, even when sending the client to my competition. This book is very well written, and is an enjoyable read. I found the advice very easy to follow, mainly because I didn't find it manipulative. The pace of the book is fast, without belaboring each point. The stories are good. The concepts are well researched. And despite the title, the book encompasses the whole sales cycle. I'm planning to give copies to friends and colleagues. I highly recommend this book.

I listened to the audiobook and am now going back through the digital version to take notes. [Side note: The audiobook is great - I appreciate that James was the narrator, and I felt like this was a perfect book to do in audio). I've been in sales for 6+ years (both B2C and B2B) and read an average of 1-2 books per week, and this was hands down the most helpful book on closing that I've come across. In fairness to Anthony Iannarino (which is how I heard about James Muir) I haven't read The Lost Art of Closing yet, so I might have to retract that statement...but James has set an exceptionally high bar. The closing method that James describes is deceptively simple. I won't ruin it by discussing here, but suffice to say I've been using the method almost daily since finishing the book and it's been powerful. Understanding the difference between rejecting an action vs. rejecting the TIMING of an action has upped my sales game significantly (read the book to understand what I mean). The thing I love most about the method? There isn't even a HINT of manipulation, coercion, sliminess, or any of the other usual B.S. that's associated with books on closing. It's very refreshing to read a book on closing that starts with the premise that buyers are smart, thoughtful professionals who deserve respect and transparency. What a novel concept! Great work, James Muir!

Read full review and summary of this book on my blog: imeducatingmyself.com/the-perfect-close-the-secret-to-closing-sales-review-james-muir This book is from Marketing & Sales section, and I bought it because I was looking to learn new things which could help to improve marketing strategies with my blog. I have to say that book isn’t quite what I was looking for, but there are good tips and insights shared in this book which I can use. This book is best suited for corporate sales people who interact with their customers and have meetings with them, and have a small percentage interactions by phone, email etc. If you are someone who works as a corporate sales person, then you will be found many helpful tips in this book which will elevate up your knowledge. I have to say that the book is a bit more technical, and in my opinion it should be read multiple times to get better understanding, because it does contain a lot of information which can’t be understood and used all at once. But I didn’t find this book boring, I was able to read it in couple of days whenever I had free time. So definitely, it needs to be re-read couple of times to be able learn as much as possible to start implementing everything. If you are looking for examples of marketing strategies, you’ll not find it in this book. There are couple of examples where author is presenting conversation with potential client from which you can learn something, but don’t expect much from examples presented in this book (they are couple of pages only.) Like I said it already, I was looking ways to improve my sales strategies on my blog, and I didn’t quite found what I was looking for – but still, I did learn a lot of other useful things (useful for me at least) that I was planning to learn in future anyway, because I have my regular job where I interact with customers on a daily basis. Author in this book is teaching us how we need to focus on our customers, and provide solutions which are helpful for them, which are beneficial for them. We need to focus on due diligence and learning about product(s) that we are selling, and researching our potential customers. If you are someone who works as a corporate sales person, I would definitely recommend this book. If you are someone who have online based business and don’t have much contact with your customers – than you might want to skip this book.

James Muir has set the tone with his book, The Perfect Close. What is amazing about this book, is that is one of those books that can used adapted, and implemented by anyone at any level of their sales ability and experience. If you are new to sales, get this book!! If you're a journeyman, or at the top of the profession you will benefit from the lessons learned and implemented in The Prefect Close. James Muir, lays out a very easy tp follow map of the process from the beginning of the sales process, the how to of prepping for meetings, asks the right questions like, why should the client see me or how am I going to add value to this call. He also gives you permission to skip the first 8 chapters (I didn't) and go right for the close sequence. The book is brilliant in its simplicity, which makes it so easy to follow. You will have to do your homework as James gives us exercises, forms to fill out and brain storming sessions. This all adds to the implementation of the concepts of the prefect close. I really love the questions to ask yourself before the call, the explanation of how to give or add value, and the difference between a continuation and an advance. I actually have done most of what James writes about in the book, how ever he has formulated what I do and gave to some serious Kick, to take concepts to new levels. The chapters of this book end with a review of the chapter. I do recommend reading the 'closing secrets' after the chapter, writing them down and reading them again before moving on to the next chapter or when you pick up the book again to continue reading it. The last chapter I found to be the most helpful as it summarizes the lessons in the book and clearly explains how to follow them. Listen to James and start using the steps immediately to further enhance your understand one of this book and how to use the content in your everyday sales activities. You will find more info and more material free on James's Website, so no excuses, get the book and take your career up a notch or two.

Hi I’m Douglas Burdett, host of The Marketing Book Podcast and I’d like to tell you about the book "The Perfect Close: The Secret To Closing Sales" by James Muir. With a book title like "The Perfect Close", you may be lumping this book in with so many other inane books on closing techniques. I did, when I first heard saw the title. But it’s not. In fact, the author compares closing techniques to fad diets. He even says “I generally hate sales tricks and manipulative techniques.” The truth is, the closing technique at the heart of The Perfect Close is just two questions which are outlined in chapter 12 of the book. But if you don’t read the chapters that precede chapter 12 you won’t appreciate why those two questions work so well. But let’s back up and talk about closing. Closing is anything that puts a customer in a position involving some kind of commitment. In the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, Alec Baldwin’s character screams at his salesmen to “always be closing.” But in "The Perfect Close", James Muir presents research that proves just how ineffective that approach actually is.But on the other hand, studies have found that a majority of salespeople now don’t use any kind of closing techniques.The problem with that is that sales don’t close themselves. "The Perfect Close" presents a method to closing that is nearly always successful in gaining commitments from customers throughout the sales process, is zero pressure for the buyer and the seller and involves just two questions. If you’re suspicious of closing techniques that are an insult to the intelligence of the buyer (and seller) and are longing to separate the signal from the noise as it relates to closing techniques that actually work in this new era of the super-informed, buyer-controlled sales process, you’ll want to read "The Perfect Close" and use all the related worksheets and resources that come with the book. And to listen to an interview with James Muir about "The Perfect Close", visit MarketingBookPodcast.com

The book was full of well known selling advice and offered very little in the way of how to close better.

Perfect close in 2 questions: - Initial Question: “Does it make sense for us to X so that Y?“ - Follow-Up Question: “[OK,] What is a good next step [then]?” Key takeways: 1. Intent matters more than technique. Warmth is judged before competence. Adopt the mindset of genuinely wanting to help the other person in a friendly and ethical way. 2. Advance - a significant action that requires energy by the client — either in the call or right after it — that moves the sale toward a decision. 3. Understand and embrace the fact that evaluating alternatives is a key part of our prospect’s buying process. Rather than fight this — help them with it. 4. It is critical that we add value on every single sales encounter. The key to value creation is providing insight rather than information. 5. Not having an agenda sends the message that you are a time-waster not a value creator. 6. Telegraphing a concession means giving that concession. 7. You and your prospect will get a lot of value from mapping all the steps [of their buying process] at once. 8. If necessary, instead of offering an end-of-quarter discount, say: "Does it make sense for me to see if we can do something special for you if we can get everything wrapped up by the end of the quarter?"

What I liked most about the book, The Perfect Close, is the practical, simple, and clear strategies the author presents to close sales. Not only are you reading a book by a legitimate thought leader and master of his craft who has put in his dues and succeeded with the approaches he offers, he seems to have read countless contemporary and classic books on his topic and complimentary subject matters. This level of understanding of his profession and human nature adds subtle layers of expertise to demonstrate why and how these sales steps work so effectively. This is far more than just a how-to book on sales. It’s a master’s class in sales, persuasion with integrity, psychology, and the power of a positive, rational mindset. It provides a point-by-point guide for what you can do to advance your sales to closure. It’s hard to put a price on how valuable the wisdom in this book is. If someone said, I can save you years of making painful professional mistakes by reading and applying what it says in a single book that will take you a few hours to read, would you believe them? Well, this is THAT book! I’m recommending it to every friend or colleague who sells for a living. This is a sales book written by an expert in his field, who has walked the talk at all levels of sales. He weaves anecdotes – both successes and early mistakes, well-researched, science-backed data, relevant and succinct examples and tactics, both that he has experimented with and mastered, into an easy-to-read, enormously practical how-to book on sales. Every line has a purpose and a point. There are no wasted words. The free resources are superbly useful and well designed and could be a course in themselves. One of the themes that came out of this book for me is to focus on the audience’s needs, not your own self-serving agenda. There is one personal story the author, James Muir reveals that really moved me as a father and served to shift my mindset and perception of the sales process from an interaction that is transactional to transformative – for your client. What also makes this book different is that the writing style is engaging, warm, transparent, humble yet confident, flawlessly edited, well-structured and the style and intent matches the content. It gave me practical ways to apply the information to my professional talks in which I have experimented and struggled with finding a way to offer 1:1 analysis and group consulting at the end of my keynotes. It also occurred to me that the strategies offered in how to set agendas for meetings would work well to help me guide my students in planning fundraising drives. I’m going to do the following differently: I recently was asked for an opening plan and quote to give a keynote/facilitate a conference at a college. I was unsure of the approach as the organizer gave me few details. I was also reluctant to set up a phone call directly with the college’s rep. because I didn’t know what questions to ask or how to proceed, in terms of selling my services. I feel confident now that I have a solid and effective plan for the next offer I receive to do a talk, thanks to the author’s step-by-step approach laid out in, “The Perfect Close”.

I'm starting I was thinking it is creating over hype about perfect close but trust me it was damn Right. I love this book and It is on my Golden Shelf.......

I read a *lot* of sales books and don't recommend many but this book is exceptional! If you only read chapters 8 (advances) and 12(closing) you will have learnt more than a library of sales books. There are other books that go into more detail on prospecting and strategy but if you want to know how to CLOSE a deal with integrity, this is the book. Well done James.

The book opens by inviting you to jump to the punch line. Much like presents under the christmas tree, I have never been able to resist the temptation to take a peak. But, despite reading the closing comments in the beginning, it didn't spoil my enjoyment or the value contained within the body of book. The book lays a strong foundation before tackling the art of closing deals. James demonstrates that closing isn't a contrived technique to manipulate commitment, but as all great salespeople know, it is a natural consequence of a well execute sales process. What I really like is how the steps of the sales cycle are broken down and shown to support a positive conclusion. This is all done in a non confrontational way and the gentle narrative supports the message within. It could almost be called "The Perfect Position to Close", and its far more powerful to follow the entire process than read yet another benign list of closing techniques. Very nice, recommended.

There are not that many great books on sales closing, some make it sound too easy, some make it sound technical and over thought. James has written a book and accompanying workbook that really resonates with sales professionals like myself. I have been in sales for over 30 years and this is one of those books that had me going back and rereading what I had just read just to be sure. It is that good. Many new sales books just having me rolling my eyes. This one is genuinely different in its approach and highly relevant with working examples and methods to help achieve success. The delegates who attend my training courses will be recommended to buy this book and I am delighted to recommend it here. Simon Hares. SerialTrainer7 Ltd.