Closing the deal

Late last night my wife and I decided to put an offer in on a home and it got me thinking about how we finally came to the decision to purchase a house, and the sales process of the Realtor. There are many steps involved in the sales process and the close is one of the few that you see tangible results. But the bigger question is, “How do I become better at closing?” To find that answer you may actually have to look at different aspects of your sales technique to improve on the close.

As a sales person I wish it was so easy as to walk into a customer’s office talk with anyone there and simply ask them, “Do you want to buy my product/service?” To which they would quickly and emphatically answer “YES!” Unfortunately, life does not work that way and when people want a closer or hunter what they are looking for is someone who knows how to listen to their customers and take them through the appropriate sales steps.

There are a lot of ways to close the deal, but if you cover these steps you should be well on your way to see a higher percentage of closes with your prospects.

• Talk to the decision maker(s). Your wasting your time and others when you do not diligently make sure you are speaking with the appropriate contacts. It is too easy to assume that you are talking with the decision maker but many times you are not. A couple of questions you can ask your contact without offending them are, “Is there anyone else that should be involved in this meeting?” “What is the process in making a decision for this product/service?”
• Develop rapport. When people feel comfortable around sales people they are more likely to open up and share their business concerns and even personal concerns if you build a strong relationship. By not developing a strong rapport prospects will clam up and keep quite. Use your detective skills for this step and keep an eye out for any photos, jewelry, or other personal items. If you meet in a conference room a good ice breaker is always to talk about the weather, what they did over the weekend, or local events (that are not politically driven). Again, the client doesn’t really care about your personal interests so don’t go on tangents about your life. People love talking about themselves and their interests so if you can successfully get them talking about themselves you will find a stronger rapport with your clients.
• Be clear and on the same page. Being on the same page is vital to closing the sale. You do not want to show up for a meeting an hour late, or prepare for ABC product when they really wanted to learn about XYZ product. Before diving into a meeting confirm with them the time expectations for the meetings, topic of the meetings, and the goals of the meeting. Many people will find that they have to push their comfort levels to find success in this step. In this step you should ask clients to tell you “no” if there is no chance for you to earn their business. This technique is called “Going for the ‘no’” and is very powerful. On top of that it will save time for you to be selling to people that are genuinely interested.
• Understand their issues/pains. People like to think they make decisions based on logical reasons but the reality is they make decisions based on emotions. To uncover these reasons you must find what their pains are and how your product and ease those pains. I would highly recommend you follow the Pain Funnel (click to see funnel) from Sandler Sales to uncover the real reasons why you are at the meeting. The more successful you are at uncovering pains the more sales you will be able to close.
• Know what they can spend. It’s amazing how some industries are naturally good at this process whereas many others are not. While searching for a house it was impossible to look at properties without my Realtor knowing the price range. If a client is unwilling to say what their budget is throw out a range and get feedback like this, “Typically my product costs between $2500 and $3000, is that within your expectations?”
• Stop selling. So this is it; the close. By now you should have uncovered all the client’s pains and why your product/service will help alleviate their issues. Your product falls within their budget and you are working with the decision maker. A good way to know if you are at this point is by asking, “Is there anything preventing you from moving forward with the deal?” If you hear a “no” then you know the deal is done. If you continue to sell, you may actually screw up the deal. I have heard stories about people saying, “Oh it also comes with XYZ feature” The client responds with, “I don’t need that feature and don’t want to pay for it.” Not a good way to start off the relationship.

These are just a few tips for closing the deal from just one person. I would love to hear feedback from other people on their thoughts and suggestions to help close the deal. Leave comments below, and if you found value in the article please pass it along to friends and co-workers.