How to Get Good at Sales and Closing – 7 Sales Tips for Closers
The part of the sales process called the close, is when the prospect is signing the contract and you know you are getting paid. Based on the feedback I am getting from my clients when teaching sales, this is the hardest part for a beginner to learn. What do you actually need to do when you are engaged one-on-one with a prospect or client and you need to pull them over the line to sign the contract so you get paid? This is what sales is and often people celebrate way too early. Before the contract is signed and they are guaranteed pay, salespeople often do not recognize that the deal is not fully closed.
Many salespeople are so focused on pitching and prospecting that they never properly learn how to close. You need to have a step-by-step system you follow as best as you can until you can understand every single habit and can replicate and improve upon it.
There are seven habits you need to incorporate when closing
The first is to talk with your prospect about their business. Find the specific needs of their company that you need to solve and gather information you can use later in the close. Closing and getting sales in general is not just about the pitch, but you need to listen for information to use to your advantage. Sales is more of a game of chess rather than any other sport.
Second, you need to find their pain and pleasure points so you can relate your product or services strengths and solutions to them. You need to show them how they can avoid their pains with your service and how they can gain pleasures by using your service. This works on an emotional level and as a psychological trigger to get people more inclined to buy from you.
One habit to implement is asking your prospect in a light-hearted tone if they are interested or not. If they almost agree that they are somewhat interested, even if this is relatively early in the conversation, you are going to have a much easier time to close. An example of this question could look like: “Well it sounds like you are a good fit, what do you think?” Be sure to mention this randomly when they answer a question in the sales conversation.
If they say, “Yeah, I think so,” what they are showing subconsciously, sometimes even consciously, that they are agreeing to buy from you up to a certain point. If they say, “No way! This is a terrible idea,” then you are probably wasting your time and should probably move onto your next client. If they think they are ready then you can now tell them step by step how your help will improve their life upon the signature of the contract or start of the service.
The next habit in your sales process to improve close rates is to ask your client if there are more decision makers that need to be present to pay you or decide to take on the project. Often people will use the excuse in a sales meeting that they still need to go talk to someone else and they cannot decide by themselves. This can waste a lot of time so it is your job to make sure everyone who is deciding is at the meeting.
Another habit is to minimize the strengths of your competitors in your sales calls. You can acknowledge their strength points and maximize their weaknesses. Ask your client about their experience with the competitor and you can include how your service solves all of their issues that the competitor deals with or cannot provide for.
One habit to implement is to talk about price in a certain way. You can ask, “What might your budget be for this project?” You need to know the person is in your range to sell to because if they actually cannot afford your service then you may be wasting your time. You can even ask them straight up is they can afford the service as it can save time.
A great habit to use is to ask when their decision time is. Often bigger companies make decisions that are made at certain times of the year. Right before their meeting time you can meet up with the prospect again and make sure your service is fresh on their mind when they make the decision. This is great because bigger companies often have four or five companies that are trying to earn their business.
What should you expect when implementing these seven habits?
Your closing rate should skyrocket because these skills make a huge difference for any beginner, intermediate, or even some advanced people who do not implement these already. These habits are super important as you cannot miss these habits and still have a high close rate in most situations. All the meetings, appointments, and sales calls you did not close earlier will go away and your next calls will become success stories more often than not.
What can you implement from this?
At least implement one of these into your sales in the next 7-90 days and see how it works for you. From there keep adding in more of the habits when you find successes.
