In order to always be closing, you have to begin with the idea that you do not provide a service until you close. You aren’t providing a service to anyone by selling, presenting, promoting, marketing or building trust. These things are admirable actions but they don’t compare to the close which provides a service for the first time. When you exchange money for a service or product, you give value to a customer.

People breathe but that’s not your purpose, right? Oxygen is critical, but you breathe because you want to live. Just as you’re always breathing, you should always be closing. Always do these things and you’ll always be closing:

Always treat a buyer like they can.

If you treat someone like they have money, they’ll act like they have money. Treat me like I won’t buy, like I can’t, and I will not buy. All your words, responses, facial expressions, and actions need to communicate that you’re treating your buyer as somebody who is going to buy, can buy, will pay, will commit now, and will close now.

This is a discipline. Treat them like they have money and they’ll create money they don’t have. You create the buyer. When they lack confidence in themselves they won’t buy. Inspire people by showing them how much you believe in them. Great closers believe in people.

Always acknowledge the buyer.

“I hear you”, “I got you”, “I understand”, “I’m with you” — always acknowledge your customer. Don’t bypass this. Regardless of what the buyer offers in the negotiations, if you don’t acknowledge them they will become upset. If you don’t acknowledge them you stop communication and without communication there is no close.

If you’ve heard someone say, “are you listening to me?” you haven’t been acknowledging them. Remember when you acknowledge someone it doesn’t mean you buy into what they are saying.

Always agree with the buyer.

You don’t ever want to disagree with your buyer. There will come a time in the close where you might disagree, but before that, there will be a lot of agreement. If you violate agreement early on you will crush your negotiations. Always agree is different than the idea that the customer is always right. The customer is not always right.

Whether the buyer is right or wrong is not the issue. In order to close, you have to resolve conflict and disagreement. That takes one person, not two. For disagreement to exist it takes two sides. Disagreement only results in not closing deals.

Always look for a solution.

The world is filled with can’t-do people. There’s no shortage of them. There is a handful of can-do people. These are the valuable people in society. Those that can’t-do, don’t do. Those that can do, do do.

Those that believe the impossible make the impossible happen. Nobody cares what you can’t do. I was once in an Italian restaurant and they said I couldn’t sit where I was sitting if I was eating pizza. They had a policy that if you were ordering a pizza, you had to sit in the back. I didn’t want to sit in the back. It was insanity. I don’t care what they can’t do, because people only care about what you can do.

Having a solution-oriented attitude is about having the right mental disposition. You need to ask this question, “What can I do?” Think about how things can work. People appreciate those who never give up.