Tips for closing more sales

Are you losing thousands of dollars each year because your salespeople fail to close qualified prospects? If your representatives complain about how hard it is to move to the close after a great presentation, chances are they are making excuses that are costing you money.

Successful reps know that the close is the easiest part of the sale. These top producers believe the close is the obvious conclusion to their presentation. Closing will flow naturally when you listen to your prospect and focus on benefits the prospect perceives are essential. If you uncover your clients' needs and can fulfill them, you should close with conviction. To make the close the easiest part of your presentation, develop the traits of sales leaders.

1. Confidence: Whenever someone buys, he or she is releasing a precious resource--his or her money. The prospect must trust you and believe you have his or her best interest in mind before moving forward with the purchase.

Convey confidence in your product by speaking in a strong and decisive tone. Avoid ahh's and uhmm's. Use clear and well-thought-out sentences. Be friendly, conversational and thoughtful in your manner. When you speak with the commanding power of a leader, your prospect will be more likely to follow your recommendations to purchase.

2. Enthusiasm: It is contagious! You must convey it or your prospect will never get excited about your product. As the expert on your product or service, you are expected to know all of its wonderful attributes. If you are not enthusiastic, why should your potential client be?

Enthusiasm can be generated by making a list of all the benefits you offer your customers. You can also read through the corporate testimonial file for specific examples of satisfied customers. Most important, smile and speak in a rapid, upbeat tone.

3. Benefit the prospect: You offer value on many levels that will help your prospects. However, it is each prospect's "hot button" that will motivate buying. Therefore, you must listen closely to what prospects want most and, each time you discuss a product feature, get your prospects to see that their "hot button" need will be satisfied. Each time they verbally, visually and mentally see your product satisfying their needs, you are weighing the close in your favor.

4. Trial closes: These are the thermometers that test if your prospect is ready to buy. The major factor that delays people from purchasing is fear of making the wrong decision. The average person hates making decisions, but loves giving his or her opinion. Herein lies the beauty of the trial close.

In a standard close, you ask for a decision for a financial commitment. However, in the trial close we just want their opinion about your product or service. You want to see a favorable opinion on how they see the product benefiting them.

If you get a very favorable response, you are ready to ask for a commitment. If it is only somewhat warm, you should get the prospect more excited about the benefits you offer before you ask for an order. A cold or noncommitted response is a warning that your prospect is not convinced of the value offered. In that case, you must go back to probing further for needs and developing a greater understanding of how you can help.

By specifically adding three words--in your opinion--to the start of your closing and probing questions, you will greatly increase the percentage of prospects who say yes. Life is about good timing. Trial closes assure that you ask for the order at the appropriate time.

5. Avoid noes: By handling objections before asking for the order and testing the water with trial closes, you minimize the number of times your prospect may say no during your presentation. This is crucial to building a high closing percentage because each time your prospect responds negatively, he or she becomes entrenched in a nonbuying mindset. By always keeping the focus on finding solutions before receiving an actual rejection, you become a valuable problem solver rather than a salesperson trying to overcome objections.

6. Ask for the order: It is amazing how many salespeople never ask for the order. Many clients expect you to close the presentation and will not buy until you do so. Clients feel safe in their indecision and therefore must be asked for the order or they may never buy. The greatest tragedy of not asking for the order is you talk so much the prospect decides not to buy. When the prospect is excited about your offer, stop selling and just ask for the order. If you are not asking for the order, you are not a sales representative, but merely an order taker.

7. Benefits lacing: When you give your rates or purchasing options, avoid the standard error of rattling off a list of prices. Instead, try briefly rementioning a benefit between each price. This is helpful for several reasons. First, you have the prospect's full attention at this time. Second, the prospect may have forgotten or never heard the benefit when mentioned earlier. Last, you are significantly adding value and justifying the price each time you slip a benefit inbetween each stated rate.

8. Silence: After asking for the order, shut up. You have asked your customer to make a decision and the ball is now in the prospect's court. The prospect must now tell you how he or she wants to proceed. The silence may be uncomfortable, but that only makes the client focus on the decision at hand--to buy or not to buy.

9. Seven times: Mediocre reps ask for the order once or twice. Good reps ask for the order several times. Top producers ask for the sale at least seven times. They are successful because they are persistent. They ask for the order numerous times on a single sales all, plus they follow-up with their prospects and keep asking for the order. They are clear on how they can benefit the customer and are persistent on helping the client get those benefits. Top producers get the sales many other representatives never fully pursued.

10 Ask differently: To continuously ask for the order without sounding like a pest, you should develop an arsenal of closing techniques for different circumstances. Having 10 to 20 different ways to repeatedly ask for the order is very helpful. Super achievers read books, network with other producers, listen to tapes and take seminars to improve their closing ratios.

11. Repeat business: Trust, credibility and an understanding of client needs have all been established with your current customers. Turning a cold prospect into a new customer requires seven times the effort as upselling or cross-selling a current customer. Your customers are a valuable asset and should be treated with care. They represent one of your greatest closing opportunities for selling new products and services.

12. I'll buy, I'll buy: When you ask for the order, try to avoid questions that result in a no. Instead, ask a question such as; do you want a one-year or a two-year subscription? This is significantly more effective than asking which subscription they want. You are helping to lead the prospect to a favorable decision when you set up a yes-yes response.

13. Be assumptive: If you have what your client wants, talk as though it is his or hers already. Assume the prospect has made a favorable buying decision. Essentially, make the decision for the prospect if he or she has been giving green lights throughout the presentation. When you pose your closing question, state what you are going to do, but turn it into a question by tagging on a simple "okay?" For example: "I'm so happy to hear how concerned you are about the environment. I'll put you down for the $100 wildlife donation, okay?"

14. Psychology of yes: The more your prospect says yes, the more likely he or she is to buy. By building simple questions that generate a yes response into your presentation, you get the customer in the habit of saying yes to you. It is much easier to get the client to buy when you go for that big, "Yes, I'll take it" when the customer has been saying yes throughout the whole sales dialog.

An encyclopedia company conducted a study that found that after a prospect says yes six times, he or she is in a much more positive buying state. Even simple questions such as, "Are you married?" will develop that positive environment. It is recommended to preplan your questions to make them most effective. By preplanning your questions, you can simultaneously uncover fertile sales soil while prequalifying the prospect.

Developing a high closing ratio comes from viewing the closing phase of a sales call as an ongoing process rather than a single step. It is a journey that starts from the moment you enthusiastically greet your customer and flows throughout the whole presentation as your client desires to work with you to fulfill his or her needs.

As you consciously apply techniques that better serve your client and move the client toward a favorable purchasing decision, you will frequently enjoy the exhilaration of closing the sale and see profits soar.

Mark Anthony is president of Training for Success, Inc. in New York City and gives individual and group training sessions on closing techniques and sales skills vital to increasing profits.

Copyright Technology Marketing Corporation Sep 1995
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