Sales closing has something in common with skydiving. In both activities, there is a lot of preparation required; and when the time comes to take action, you simply must do it, or all the time and effort spent on preparation was for naught.

Ground school pre-jump instruction and the first accelerated freefall jump at a skydiving center near my home will set you back $275. The ground school instruction is a six-hour commitment. Just think, six hours of preparation time for just a few minutes of thrill! Similarly, a sales interaction can be one or several hours, but the closing of a sale itself can take only a few minutes. Closing is arguably the most thrilling portion of the sales process.

Both parachuting and closing the sale require decisive action. To be able to experience the thrill of the jump, the parachuter must exit the plane. This step cannot be ignored. If the parachute doesn’t exit the plane, his $275 investment buys him merely a brief ride in a plane; there is no thrill ride back to earth.

In sales, you have to ask for your prospect’s business. If you don’t take closing action, all your sales preparation will be wasted. The effort you spent getting to know your prospect, identifying their needs, and presenting product or service solutions to him will not be leveraged to create revenue for you and your company.

Here are five closing strategies that will help you tune-up your selling process so that you can experience the thrill of closing more often:  

1. Make sure you do it. It’s not unusual salespeople will think they asked for the sale when they really didn’t. This “Closing Confusion” is a phenomenon I’ve documented repeatedly. Saying, “So, what do you think?” isn’t closing. Don’t be confused! Buying is decisive, so asking for the sale has to be decisive too.

2. Ask. Don’t suggest. It’s one thing to suggest a prospect buy, but it’s quite another thing to ask the prospect to buy. This is a suggestion: “If you place your order today, you’ll have your widget by Thanksgiving.” Here’s a close: “Should we go ahead and place your order so you’ll have your new widget by Thanksgiving?” The difference in outcome with these two different approaches is massive. Asking closing questions results in far more closed sales than does making a suggestion.

3. Ask more than once. If you’re serious about increasing your sales, you need to be prepared to ask for the order several times, and in different ways. If your first closing attempt was an “assumptive” close, then perhaps your second closing action should be a direct question close. With some products, the prospect will almost certainly refuse your first closing attempt, so expect it, plan for it, and develop a strategy to get beyond your first “no.” Salespeople that ask more than once sell more than salespeople who only ask once.

4. Be comfortable. Being asked to make a purchase can be stressful for the prospect. It can also be stressful for the salesperson. But showing stress won’t help the salesperson close more sales. To jump out of a plane at 13,000 feet, you need to calm and cool; and to be a successful closer, you need to be calm and cool, too. Just relax and enjoy the ride!

5. Don’t forget: closing is your job. Unless you get paid a salary, your job is to close (and one could argue that even salaried salespeople are paid to close, since not enough closed sales will result in the loss of the job!). Your job title may be “Design Consultant” or “Insurance Agent” or “Residential Relocation Expert.” But “consulting” and “agenting” and “experting” doesn’t pay your bills or support your family; only closing sales does that. Accept this reality: your job is to close the deal!

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