The final step in selling solutions is probably the one that has given salespeople the bad rap of being high pressure. Sales people of yesteryear may have called it "closing the deal" or going for the kill." Obviously, you have to get a customer's commitment to be successful in selling. However, it doesn't have to be as painful as many people in my sales training workshops believe - particularly if you're offering a real solution.

The real question is - do you close the sale or do you close the customer? When you close the customer, the relationship closes the rest of the business. Let's take a closer look at a golden oldie, an example from America's Twelve Master Salesmen, written by B.C. Forbes & Sons in 1953.

Alfred E. Lyon was a street salesman in Manhattan and later became a corporate executive. His principle was to 'sell yourself first.' "Remember, your customers don't buy your product. They buy you. If they buy you, they will sell your product for you." His approach -- "I treat my potential customers as I would treat a stranger whom I wanted to be my friend" —- was a benchmark for his success. He realized that people buy from people they like. And all he did was to get people liking him, and the rest was easy.

That same sales philosophy still holds true 50 years later. If you focus on really building a person-to-person connection, closing doesn't have to be painful or high pressure. There are a lot of different ways to gain a commitment, from a direct question to encouraging affirmative responses throughout the sales process. When you really want to close a deal, your foundation has to be the relationship. People buy from people.