Four Tips for Gracefully Ending a Sales Call

Technology has given sales professionals amazing tools to help keep in contact with clients and prospects. What did we ever do before email? Now, texting, IMs, Tweets and other digital marvels are helping us stay connected, inform and nudge prospects throughout the day.  

Most of these tools are pretty easy to use effectively. You have to be a decent writer and know some grammar, spelling and basic sentence structure, packed into as little as 140 characters. Face-to-face encounters are also going cyber with Face-to-Face or Skype technology available to bring you and your prospects of clients together.

All this connection is great. Disconnecting is more difficult. A recent article in Fast Company, “Design Flaws: On Skype, How Do We Hang Up Gracefully?” posed an interesting question. With other communication methods, there are clear cues for a graceful disconnect. In a face-to-face meeting, standing up from the table and shaking hands means the meeting is over. Email, texts, tweets and IMs have an automatic ending. But what about online, in person meetings? How fast do you hit the button to end the meeting? What are the proper verbal cues? It is new territory.

This article poses a larger question about how to end an interaction. We’ve all had those endless emails that are no more than a series of, “thanks,” "No, thank you!” “No problem,” “Take Care,” “Same to you!” and on and on. You want to end this, but if you don’t reply, will the other person think that I’m being rude? Skype meetings can be a little surreal if the person keeps weaving closer and farther away from the camera, or is shuffling papers or has a stream of uninvited guests parading behind him during the conversation. You want to end the conversation without seeming like you are abrupt or rude. Here are a few suggestions on politely ending a conversation so your prospect or client.

1. Say goodbye. Verbalize what you are going to do. “Joe, we’ve had a great meeting and I appreciate your time today. Goodbye for now, and if you have any questions, let me know. I’m signing off.” No surprises, no sudden blank screens without a fond farewell.
    
2. Know how to sign off. There is nothing more embarrassing than closing a productive sales meeting on Skype and then fumbling around trying to figure out how to get offline. You may be the top sales professional in your organization, but fumbling around with technology can plant some seeds of doubt. The camera is picking up your facial expressions and everything you think you’re muttering under your breath. And so is the prospect. Make your exit as clean and professional as your presentation. 
    
3. Let you prospect sign off first. She may have a few more questions, or be better at this than you are. Again verbalize. “Thanks for your time today. If you don’t have any more questions for now, I’ll wait for you to sign off.” Then, just wait patiently until he signs off. 
    
4. Don’t go there! If you don’t know how to use the technology, don’t try to fake it. It’s better to use another form you are comfortable with or set up a real live meeting. Take an online class and practice with friends or family before meeting with potential clients.

There are new communications applications and devices created every day. It’s hard to keep up with it all. You don’t have to. Choose the ones that work best for you and your business and be an expert. You’ll impress prospects and clients with your business knowledge and technical expertise.

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