The Phone Interview

[scorched]

Hmm.. Yes a sales person needs to get the deal, but are you looking for them to check the box on knowing closings?
Maybe it's just me, but in my experience for the last 10 years, any sales person doing hard closes is desperate.
If you interview someone and your not convinced by the end, a closing obviously won't help them, but if your convinced at the end, and they don't close you, you wouldn't hire them?
You said you would think twice? Really? because they didn't? I don't get that in todays social society. Sure you might get sales, but buyers remorse from high pressure closings is far more detrimental than even a bad product release.

Sales is psychology, and using closing statements reminds people of the old used car salesmen. What people want are relationships, they want to know your there when things go bad, they want to know you care.
I am in some definitions a pre-sales engineer as I help sell technology solutions. I have been to several formal sales training systems over the years, and the most successful was where only 1 close was allowed.
Never close the customer, always pre-close the customer with the up front contracts and one thermometer type statement. Anything more and your perceived as the slimy sales.
The 4 years my sales guy and I ran that system, our lowest year ever was 160% of quota. We were a brand new product with intense competition, yet he and I went to presidents club 4 years straight until we were sold to Dell, where we subsequently left. Then hooked up with another sales person running the same system at a much smaller company, we still crushed it. No less than 140%.

I am not sales but still get commission and brash enough that I bring my W-2's to the on site interviews, show them my salary vs. my commissions. I bring my quota sheet as proof.
Between the interview and that, if it isn't enough, then I don't worry about not getting that job, as I would have a low chance of success working there anyway.

Not trying to be argumentative, but just offering different views.

I agree that it depends on the type of job you're applying for regarding whether the close will work. I am hiring for sales positions, so if someone doesn't ask a solid closing question such as what BiPolarGuy said, I would think twice before hiring them. It's not for all areas of the company, but for sales, it's a must. If you can't "close" yourself, you will likely be afraid to ask for the sale.