Push Selling vs. Pull Selling A benefit of selling this way is to begin to pull prospects through a buying cycle, rather than pushing them through a sales cycle. Not only is it a pain to push a prospect through a sales cycle, it tends to be a lot less productive, and you end up with more customers who aren't a great long-term fit for the company. Selling to success helps pull a prospect through a buying cycle by helping tie their goals and desires to your company's ability to help achieve their goals. The Trick One of the tricks in “selling to success” is to not care too much about the close. Caring too much about the close will cause you to give off subconscious signals to the customer that you really don't care about their success, you care more about getting paid or getting your manager off your back. That's the irony of stressing too much about the close itself: the stress can reduce the likelihood of it happening. The Close Becomes A Natural Step In Achieving The Vision If you and the customer create a joint vision around how your company will make them successful, and they believe you, then the close becomes just a logical step in the progression to achieve that dream. You can remove the artificiality of “closing,” and make it feel natural. Two Steps To Help Your Team Sell To Success First: Include a SIMPLE “Success Plan” step before you close. This is a plan (almost a vision) that paints a picture of the basic steps beyond deployment to actual client success. It should also include a definition of what success means to the client, a few key milestones, and some responsibilities of both your company and the client. This “plan” can literally be a half dozen bullet points in an email, agreed on with the client. It should be simple enough so that anyone at the client company who sees it will quickly grasp its essence and vision. Do not create a complex plan.