Sales Tips to Close More Business

Expert Sales Tips to Close Business and Pump Up Revenue‍

If you have ever approached the close of a sale with trepidation, you are not alone. All salespeople know that closing a sale is the most crucial point in a negotiation. It's the final moment that decides whether you are successful in your efforts, or whether your time has been completely wasted.

Since there is such a risk with sales, the payoff has to be good. That is why closing is such a thrill, which is the reason why salespeople get into the business in the first place. Great salespeople master their techniques so that they enter every closing with a near-guarantee that they will win over the customer.‍

Sales Closing Techniques That Really Work‍

Many of the best techniques include some cognitive tricks that push the customer towards taking the deal. However, you always want to focus on the customer, not the deal itself. When you try to sell something to a customer, you are focusing on their needs and interests. If you focus on the deal or product, then you won't understand how your customer is thinking. This is the first step to closing more successfully.‍

Here are some of the other techniques to incorporate into your closing strategy:

‍

1. It's Now or Never‍

You probably have seen a commercial or even spoken to a salesperson in the past who has used the now or never technique. This is when you offer a special benefit that pushes the customer to purchase right away.

Scripts employing the now or never technique typically include phrases like:

• You'll get a 20% discount if you sign up today.
• This is the last one at this discount.
• We can only offer this discount today.
• If you buy now, I'll push your installation to first in the queue.

All of these work because they create more urgency for the buyer. These are useful if you have a buyer who wants to think about it. These phrases often push them to pull the trigger and buy. However, you still need to establish value and secure a good position with the buyer before employing one of these techniques.

‍

2. Sell on Relevance and Features with Summary Closing

The summary closing technique is an older style of closing where you reiterate the items and features that come with the product. However, it's better to focus on how relevant the product is to their business. This is why it's so crucial to know your customer first. Once you do, you can extrapolate on features that matter most to your customer. You need to be able to translate features, functions, benefits, and results to what the customer is looking for.

‍3. The Sharp Angle Close‍

This is another traditional sales technique where you anticipate that a customer will ask for price reductions or add-ons because they know you want a sale. They try to use this to their advantage, and you already know if you can add on more value, depending on what your sales manager has approved.

In this case, when a customer asks for an upgrade or add-on for free, then your reply should go something like this. "I can absolutely do that, but if I can do that for you, will you sign the contract today?" Most customers expect you to say no or put up a fight, so when you immediately say that it can be done, it throws the customer off-balance and they typically move forward to close.‍

New Sales Tips to Close Business‍

The most effective sales teams focus on closing sales as soon as the conversation starts with a prospect.
‍

4. Use the Question Close
Sales reps need to ask deeper questions when talking to prospects. With a series of questions, they can create desire with a client and start eliminating different objections that arise.

There are even ways to close a sale with a question, which allows the rep to nullify any outstanding objections while also closing the commitment to a sale.

For example, you can learn what your customer's biggest objection is right away just by asking this question, "This is your area of expertise, so in your opinion, does my offer solve your issue?"

In addition, you know whether your customer is liking the proposition or whether he is still saying "no" to your proposal. If that answer is negative, it's still just an opinion, and you can continue to sell. However, if the answer is yes, you're one step closer to closing the deal.

Another question used in closing is this, "Is there any way we can proceed with shipment today?"

This is a way to see if the customer is ready to close or if not to gain more information about why the customer is not ready to commit yet. They may bring up several objections, so you need to know how to answer these with savvy responses.‍

‍

5. Play on the Power of Positive Thinking‍

Some people say all you need to do is believe in yourself. That's easy to say and hope for, but how can you use it to close a deal? In this instance, you must believe that the customer needs what you are selling to improve their business, and it's the only product or service that can do that.

This technique focuses on how well you listen to your customers and pay attention to their needs. You need to monitor the customer's responses, interest, objections, and engagement. Once the call or meeting is at an end, you ask something like, "Did this demo align with what you were looking for?" or "Does this sound like something you could use at your company?"

If you did a great job and positively made an impact on the customer, then they should be able to tell you what they liked or didn't like, allowing you to take it closer to a completed sale.‍

‍

6. Adapt and Overcome‍

When you are talking to a potential customer, you should never be afraid to ask them if they use products from a competitor or whether they are talking to other businesses. Whatever the customer says, you should respond kindly about the competitor because this is where you can show your expertise. It helps when you know about competitor products and what they do, so you can talk about why your product or service does something better.

For example, if a customer tells you they already use X company (your competitor), you can respond with "They're a great company and offer some good benefits. However, did they offer you X or Y?" In this technique, you transition to emphasizing the benefits of your product for them and why their product is inferior to what they want to do.‍

‍

7. Taking Away The Sale‍

Have you ever noticed when you take something away, the person wants it more? This is most clearly represented as when you take a toy away from your kid. They want it so much that they'll do anything to have it back. There is a similar psychological trick to closing with this technique.

In the first instance, you present the full product with all the features, and if they balk at the price, you offer a lower package but remove one or two features for a lower price. Typically, the customer will focus more on the features that were removed than on the new lower price. This allows you to talk up the full package or even add something on to the main package to get the original price.‍

‍

8. Stop Hard Closing‍

Hard closes never work. The soft close is the best way to show your customers what benefits you are offering, followed by a simple, low-impact question to see whether they want to learn more.

First, you ask something like, "If I were to reduce your application maintenance by 25% and increase productivity by 15%, would you be interested in learning more?"

This is a soft question that leads your customer to provide an answer without making any sudden requests for payment or demanding anything of the customer. The question also requires no commitment and gives you more time to learn about the customer and the needs of their business.‍

‍

Use These Sales Tips to Close Business Now!‍

If you’re marketing department is really good at B2B demand generation that should give you lots of leads for you to practice and hone your closing skills on. Being a skilled closer is a talent that many salespeople develop over time. These techniques should help you get to a higher closing percentage in the next quarter, but it's also helpful to find a fellow salesperson or mentor who can teach you more tricks of the trade.