During my first year in professional selling, I reached an inconvenient truth: The iconic “Always Be Closing” mantra is the most damaging sales advice ever given.
This philosophy, immortalized in films like “Glengarry Glen Ross,” has created generations of salespeople who approach every interaction as a battle to be won. The problem? Humans instinctively resist being “closed,” creating sales resistance that prevents success.
Think about your own experience when you feel someone trying to “close” you. Your guard goes up. You look for escape routes. You resist. This isn’t a personality flaw – it’s your brain’s natural response to perceived pressure.
The Neurological Problem With Pressure-Based Selling
When someone feels they’re being closed, their limbic system – the part of the brain responsible for survival responses – activates. This triggers resistance before the rational mind can even evaluate the offer.
I discovered this reality the hard way. Early in my career, I mastered all the traditional closing techniques. I could overcome objections. I knew how to handle sales resistance. But I was working unnecessarily hard and actually creating the very objections I was trained to overcome.
The breakthrough came when I realized something counterintuitive: detaching from the outcome actually improved sales results.
Trust-Based Sales: Alignment Over Aggression
What I’ve found through training thousands of salespeople in ethical selling is that long-term success comes from alignment – when your deeper, authentic intentions match your outward actions and words.
Your potential buyers can sense this alignment. They feel it. And they respond to it with openness rather than resistance.
This is why I developed Natural Selling Conversational Dialogue. It’s built on a simple truth: people love to buy, but they hate being sold to.
The Natural Selling Conversation Revolution
Natural Selling replaces the adversarial closing model with authentic dialogue. Instead of telling, we ask. Instead of overcoming objections, we explore concerns. Instead of closing, we help people make decisions that genuinely serve them as a trusted advisor.
The most successful five, six, and seven-figure earners I’ve trained don’t ABC – “always be closing.” They ABC – “always be conversing.” They ask questions that help potential buyers discover solutions for themselves.
This principled selling approach dissolves tension before it can form. It creates an environment where people willingly influence themselves to want to listen to and buy from you.
The Practical Shift to Ethical Persuasion
Moving away from “Always Be Closing” isn’t just philosophical – it’s practical. When you stop trying to close and start trying to understand, several things happen:
- Your sales conversations become easier and more enjoyable
- The pressure disappears – for both you and your potential buyer
- You discover what people actually need instead of assuming what they want
- And paradoxically, your sales results improve
I’ve seen this transformation countless times through my sales coaching programs. When salespeople let go of the closing mindset and embrace authentic conversation, their success accelerates.
A New Model of Selling for Today’s Buyers
This new approach to selling isn’t about replacing one technique with another. It’s about fundamentally changing how we think about the sales relationship.
The question isn’t “How do I close this person?” but rather “How can I help this person make the best decision for them?”
When you approach selling this way, resistance melts away. Conversations flow naturally. And your authentic detachment from the outcome actually draws people toward you rather than pushing them away.
After nearly three decades of training this I’ve seen it work across every industry and selling environment. Neuroscience supports it. The increased sales results confirm it.
Today’s most successful salespeople understand that authentic conversation, not pressure, is what creates lasting results.
In the end, selling the way people buy isn’t just more effective – it’s more enjoyable for everyone involved. And that might be the most important benefit of all.
Want to learn how to eliminate rejection and dissolve tension in your sales conversations? Discover my Natural Selling approach through my online sales course and transform your sales experience today. Click Here