8 Closing Guidelines to get sales this week!

 

Closing  is one aspect in sales that separates those who will enjoy a long prosperous career and those who end up making excuses for lack of results. My experience in complex selling situations and face to face consumer sales have taught  me that regardless of what type of selling you are doing there are closing guidelines that are universal. Closing doesn’t have to be difficult for you or your customers, but often that’s exactly how we make it. Here are 8 guidelines to getting agreement…

Closing isn’t slick, it’s not something that you do TO someone, but rather WITH someone.

Closing starts from the minute that you say hello with making a connection with the customer..not when you begin your service or product presentation. Some would argue it even starts before hello in pre-call planning.

If you’re not a product expert or an expert on your competitors you’ll never have the success you really want in closing. (what does your competition offer in service, reputation, product quality, how are you better?)

It’s always been helpful for me to view objections as questions.  Rephrase them in your mind and they are much easier to handle. For example: “Your price is too high”..I hear it as “Help me understand the value for me? You can go through many of the common objections that you hear and rephrase them. Write them down and train your brain!

Always position your response to the best interest of the customer. If you can’t, you’re selling for you not the customer. Customers pick up on this.  Put yourself in a position to make a professional recommendation, “Based on what you’ve shared to be important, here is what I recommend.”

Ask questions! You will not know what is important to the customer if you’re not asking. (be more creative than just asking, “what’s important to you?”, too obvious!)  I’ve seen sales professionals present too early and way too often in areas the customer has no interest. In these situations solutions are rarely built around needs, but rather just thrown out to see what sticks.

Ask for the sale! Sales professionals who aren’t confident closers rely on their product knowledge and presentation expecting customers to just say “yes”.

 

Get comfortable with being uncomfortable in closing situations. That means being prepared to ask tough questions to know exactly where you and your customer are in the process. Challenge a stall by asking “What hesitations do you have?”, or “What risks do you foresee with moving forward?”

There are volumes of material that has been written on closing techniques. I encourage you to continually study and improve on this area of your sales game. Send me an email for a list of books that have helped me gain the right closing mindset

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