Sales closing means taking the customer into the stage of commitment. This is where they actually buy – where they put out their hard earned and the not-so-hard earned cash for that matter, to buy your products. Therefore, to ensure you of a tightly sealed deal, here are some closing techniques you can take advantage of:
There are many types of close, which I will go into detail below, but here are the three common ones you should practise first, before moving on to the others:
The Trial – Check if the customer is ready to buy, be offering a limited trial period.
Assumptive – Here you literally assume the customer accepts your proposal, by asking them to “Just sign there and we can get the ball rolling”.
Alternative – Here the customer accepts the proposition and you discuss alternatives. Eg, “Would you like it to be delivered in the morning or afternoon?”
Once you have asked a closing question what is the next step.
Shut up……………..Silence is the end point.
Do not ask any smart questions or apply any pressure. Closing is a process that starts with selling you to the customer. This means you should show empathy.
Don’t take a first NO as the final answer or leave without gaining an action. Therefore, use closing as your ultimate Objective.

Using the Power of Assumption Technique

Act like your customer have decided to buy already. Speak confidently that what you are saying is what you believe you have understood from the conversation with the customer. Ask him directly as to how may items he would like to purchase and when he would like them delivered. If you say it properly enough, your customer will actually answer your question in complete detail. And when he does, be prepared to document the sale and complete it.
Sample Spiels:
So, where would you like to place these shelves once it gets in your apartment?
Which of these two sizes of bed should I process for delivery?

Using a Testimonial to Close the Deal

A happy customer is always your best advertisement. If you customer needs a little more pushing, you can state the name of one of your rather popular and highly satisfied clients, with their permission of course. Don’t forget to mention the details of the sale, like what he purchased and why he was particularly happy. Sometimes, a customer need not know who exactly became satisfied with the product. Most of the time, hearing a good story about it from any user is enough to get them to buy. And this especially true if they trust you as a salesperson.
Sample Spiels:
You know Mr. Johns, the Vice President for Purchasing of ABC Company, regularly buys from us. You can ask him how he finds our products.
We have many regular customers up north. If you like, you can ask about our products from one of your friends there. They surely have heard about us.

The First-Hand Experience Technique

To finally get your customer buying, show them your product. Let them experience actually owning it, even for a few minutes. Just make sure that you do it in such a way that they would feel attached to the product even after that short moment. Show them the features that would astound them. Give them the evidence that what you are selling all along is real and accurate. With the product in their hands, they will have the opportunity to test it and eliminate any doubts that they may have about it.
Sample Spiels:
Try one of ours and see for yourself. Let me demonstrate what this thing can do for you.
I was amazed myself the moment I knew about this product. Hold it. Feel how light it is.
Take this home with you and return it if you feel it’s not right for you.

Showing them The Better End of The Deal Closing Technique

This is the traditional deal closer. What a salesperson does here is that he shows the customer what other stuffs and bonuses he will be getting the moment he buys the product. Along with that are all the other values they are going to enjoy along with the purchase. This closing is going to be effective only if all the right good-sounding words are used. You can go down further, enumerating all the details. Your goal here is to impress the customer. And impressed they should be, not bored with your droning on, about features and user’s instructions. All you really have to do is to repeat all the important things that you might have already said. This will give your customer the impression that you are summarizing what both you have talked about and the only thing left to do is for him to take out his wallet.
Sample Spiels:
So that means you will get to enjoy the product and all its features, plus we will deliver it to you for free. And you are entitled to an all-inclusive lifetime technical support at no additional cost to you.
The whole package comes with an easy-to-carry duffel bag where you can store the product or take with you anywhere. An extra set of batteries and a cleaning device are also included.

Using the Emotions Technique

If there is anything powerful in a person, that will be his emotions. To get your customer to a successful close, aim at his emotions. Specifically stir up some deep-seated sentiments that would move him the most. Observe if he is going to react positively or negatively to it. Act according to your observation. It is always safe to go for positive emotions; but in odd circumstances, going for the negative ones can benefit as well. Whenever in doubt, don’t proceed. Keep in mind that your customer’s buying decision depends upon what he feels. He would buy if he feels the need or even the want for your product. He won’t buy at all if he is harboring no important feelings about what you are selling. So early on the deal, try to check out every now and then what your customer feels, and see how you can use it in your closing later on.
Sample Spiels:
My previous customers told me their self-confidence increased because of the great effects produced by this machine.
Other customers are calling me, saying that they should have bought this sooner.

Using the Short-Term Offer Technique

As a last effort to close the deal with your customer, offer them some get-it-now-or-never deals. Give them discounts that hold only if they make the purchase before a certain period. Give them freebies to go with their product when they pay for it now. These are good baits to a customer who is having difficulty deciding whether he should buy or not. If they feel the urgency, and that they need to decide now if they want to get the offer, they would find time to do so. You will be amazed that some would even purchase your product even before you finish your sentence because they’re afraid of missing something.
Moreover, if you make them believe that the product is scarce or limited, you increase the value of the product you’re selling. You must try your best to give him a deal that anybody would be a fool to let go of.
Sample Spiels:
Take the product today and I will slash an additional 5% discount. I should get approval for that but since my boss is out for a short break, I think I can let that offer through. What do you say?
This is the last day of sale. Tomorrow, the products are going back to its original prices. I say you take advantage of it now while the offer’s still here.
Only one more model 9850 is available. This must be your lucky day. If you miss it, it can take months before we can get new models.

Focus on the Quality Technique

This particular technique is going to work if your product’s main selling point is its quality and not anything else. This means that the product may be priced considerably the highest in the market, and you can’t possibly compete nor argue when it comes to that area. Therefore, the way to close the deal is to always emphasise the product’s superiority, in contrast to all other factors. Affirm to him that quality matters most and that its price and all the other factors associated with it are not important factors after all. Show customers how quality will work for them and how well the company keeps its promises when it comes to the product’s performance. What you are really focusing on is the product’s long-term value. That is exactly what the customer is paying for.
Sample Spiels:
You only have to pay for the product once, but you get a lifetime guarantee.
This is the product with the best quality out in the market today. You won’t regret it. And you will soon realise that its cost is such a small price to pay.

The post Types of Sales Closing appeared first on Mike Holden Sales.

The Jordan Belfort Straight Line selling method is a powerful sales training course, from the man otherwise know as the Wolf of Wall Street. You can buy this course online, although it is a hell of an investment, coming in at a hefty $1,997. You might be wondering if this investment is worth it. Well I’ve been through the training course and here are some of the notes I took. I will post more notes in later posts.  You should get an idea of what the content of this training contains and ultimately whether it is worth your investment. The Straight Line Selling System is also available in book format. 

The Sixty-Day Challenge

Jordan kicks off the Straight Line Method course with the sixty-day challenge. That challenge is for you to work twice as hard as you normally do. For instance if you normally make 100 calls per week, you will make 200 per week during the sixty day challenge.

Secondly, Belfort tells us the Straight Line System is so powerful that you should only use it ethically. You should not use it to get people to buy what they don’t want or need.

Thirdly, selling should be goal orientated. It is not a random conversation with the hope of a sale. You should always have a goal for every encounter, such as a phone call or face-to-face meeting. You will have an outcome goal ie make a sale, but you should also have a process goal. This means you have a goal around what you can control. For instance, a process goal might be to agree with the customer a next action or meeting.
Finally, you should have belief in yourself, your product and your company.

The Tenets of Selling

There are the three tenets to straight line selling. These are principles, which underpin the whole system. Those three principles are:
1. To develop instant rapport, inside four seconds of speaking to a prospect.
2. To gather intelligence, by asking the right questions.
3. You will control the sale, all along the straight line. (More on the straight line in a later post).

Questions

Start with big picture open-ended questions. Then gradually move down to small specific questions.

Imagine a straight line on a piece of paper and that you are moving from left to right from the open to the close ie getting the order. You are trying to move from left to right, ideally this will be a straight line from opening to getting the order. This means that you ask the right questions to gather information and to gain rapport.

What happens in real life is that when you are asking question, the prospect might go off on a tangent, giving you irrelevant information. Instead of moving from left to right, you start moving up towards the dotted line. This is fine and is a normal part of the conversation, until you reach the top. You don’t want to let the conversation veer off into another area so you would bring the conversation back on track.

A great way to do this elegantly is to say, “That’s great… by the way” and then ask another question to bring the conversation on track. Be careful with your tonality, you want to sound interested and that you care. If the prospect is in rapport, he may go into personal details of his life. That’s fine but you are both their on business so don’t let it go on too long. On the other side, don’t completely disregard your prospect because you will lose rapport. This is the bottom side of the straight line.

Throughout the conversation, you will naturally vary in your rapport with the prospect. As you listen to his personal details and show interest, your rapport will increase. However when you ask challenging questions, you might lessen your rapport and you will veer down towards the bottom line. Be careful not to go too far out of rapport or you may completely break it.




One trick you can do here is to visualise the perfect sales meeting where you move from the open to the close. During the visualisation, you gather great information without going off piste and you keep at level of high rapport.

Presentations

After you have asked all the qualifying questions, you would then transition into the presentation stage by saying, “Based on this, from what you have just told me, this should be a perfect fit for you”. This is a transition statement. It serves several purposes. First, it is a transition from qualifying to presenting. Secondly, you are telling the prospect that they have told you that it is beneficial to them. Thirdly, you are now taking charge of the proceedings.
Now you get into your presentation. Always remember that selling, persuading and influencing start with the prospect saying “No”. Anticipate them saying no. what you want to do is to anticipate the objections and knock them out before. That is you are overcoming the prospects buying limiting beliefs. You will do this in three ways:

Build an airtight logical case to buy now. Leave you powder dry and don’t give them all the best benefits straight away too early. If they say “no”, they will have to stay consistent and you will have nothing else left to overcome their objection.

• Build an airtight emotional case to buy now.
• Crack through all their limiting buying beliers.

You achieve these three things with scripts. Scripts are crucial. You can split test your scripts, so that you have the best scripts. Just keep using these scripts.

The Three Tens

In the eyes of your prospect, there are three parts to the sale:

• The product
• The company
• You

You need to be at level ten in each of these areas, at the same time, for you to make the sale. If you are at 10 in only two of them, you won’t make the sale. For example, your prospect loves you and your product but somehow they just don’t trust your company. Perhaps they have had a bad experience in the past before your time. Your job in the presentation is to move the level of your company up to a 10 whilst maintaining 10’s in both other areas.

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The Qualities of an Excellent Salesperson

Being a salesperson should be easy. That is, if you have all the qualities of an excellent salesperson in you. However you do your job, either face-to-face, over the telephone, or through the Internet, it is important that you possess all these qualities. Once you do, sales and commissions will just keep on pouring in and you will need an extra hand fulfilling orders.

Neatness and Appearance

For a salesperson, image is everything. It is true that before you get to sell anything, you always have to sell yourself first. This means you should be highly likeable before you get somebody to like your products. Giving your possible customers a bad impression of you won’t help at all. It would help your competitors though, because it takes you out of the picture.
You won’t always know your customers personally. In fact, you will be meeting a lot of them, if not all of them, only once in your life. Therefore, you will be approaching them and talking to them as a total stranger. In this case, they might be scrutinizing you in an attempt to judge what kind of a person you are. They might do that mostly based on your looks alone.

It is therefore important that you look neat and presentable all the time. Your aura and your physical image tell a lot about who you are and the company you represent. People do not like to deal with somebody they do not feel comfortable with. Unruly hair and dirty teeth could make you lose a sale. Don’t take the risk. Invest in your appearance. This doesn’t mean you have to buy and wear expensive suits all the time. Good grooming will make you stand out even if your clothes are old. Just make sure they are well kept and you should be fine.

Professionalism

Professionalism is how you do things right. For starters, you should not be irritating. Certain habits or conducts annoy some people. If you have a nasty habit like fidgeting with your fingers, cutting somebody’s sentence off, playing with your pen, or talking too fast, you have to do your best to eliminate it. As a rule of thumb, any habit that you think may annoy somebody else has to go – and remove it in any way possible. If you have to undergo therapies to get rid of it, do it. Much of your career depends on it. Keep in mind that the selling career entails a person-to-person contact. Because of that, you have to do everything to create a good impression and comfortable air between you and your customer.

Good Listening Skills

We talked about this before, but more than anything, a customer would like to be heard and understood, sometimes at all costs. To be a good salesperson, you have to develop your ability to listen, even to the words left unsaid. Let your customer talk. After all, they come to you because they want something. Hear them out and show them that you perfectly understood what they are trying to convey. You may just uncover a behavior or attitude that can propel you to make a sale. If you fail to do so the first time, don’t hesitate to ask them again. This will show that you are concerned about what they are saying and you don’t want to miss a detail. Don’t do it many times in a conversation; or else, the customer will assume that you are not paying attention.

Sensitivity

Always put yourself in your customer’s shoes. This is the only way you can feel what it is that concerns them and what they are trying to make you comprehend. Doing so will also ensure that you are on the right ground when it comes to dealing with people. Some salespeople become overeager to collect the commissions they would get out of every sale that they forget to treat their customer with utmost care and attention. Actually, this is the gravest mistake you can make as a salesperson. The moment you regard your customers as one-time deal is the moment you can say goodbye to your career. With that attitude, even your most loyal clients will break out and leave you hanging by a thin line eventually.

Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is infectious. If you’re excited about your product and the benefit it can give, your customers would soon follow suit. They would see your product in a different way, enough to complete a sale. Good salespeople are jovial and passionate about their craft. You should develop these qualities right at the start of your career.

Knowledge

This doesn’t mean that you necessarily need to have above average comprehension skills to start with. It means being smart with the good ability to grasp data. When a good salesperson sells his product, he knows all its prime qualities by heart. He makes it a point that he has the answer to the most asked- about question concerning the product he is selling at the back of his mind. He does not grope around looking for answers when somebody pops them up. Instead, he comes prepared with a smart answer all the time.

Integrity

Integrity means honesty and doing the right things even when somebody is not looking at you. Many customers want to stay clear of a deceitful salesperson. That is the reason why they size salespeople up before they attempt to buy or even before asking anything about the product. Customers want to know exactly how the product works, without any tall lies and truth bending. They only want to deal with a straight, honest salesperson.

Courtesy

Courtesy is something everybody appreciates. Customers definitely want to be treated like kings. They may bombard you with questions before they decide to buy, or they can try all your products before selecting the one right for them. Customers have varying tastes and styles. As a salesperson, part of your job is to conform to all their eccentricities. You might need to practice patience and be good-natured. Always remember that the most likeable salesperson always gets the job done.

Persuasiveness

All salespeople are required to be persuasive. They should be able to effectively convince their customers about the beauty of the product they are selling within appropriate levels. They should not drop at every block the customer throws at them. Instead, they should look at it as a challenge that they have to overcome. Most highly successful salespeople are even looking forward to all these challenges. They feel triumphant with every sale if they are able to prevail over the customer’s negativities. This is something that adds excitement and stimulation to their job.

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Closing

What is the most common reason for lack of sales? It is failure to close. You should therefore close often and early. Also do not accept the first NO. The average is 6-7 no’s before a YES!
The principle of all Sales and Marketing can be summarised by the term AIDA:

• Attention
• Interest
• Desire
• Action

Action is closing the sale.

Closing the Sale

A sales deal is composed of three parts. The first part is the introduction of products to possible customers. The second is the customer’s acceptance of the product. And the third part, and the most important part, at that, is the closing. With that said, closing is the hardest part of every sales transaction.

The work is done and the pipelines are filled in the first two parts of the selling process are where. But if your closing is rather weak, all that time spent in building the sale will be lost. And so, to become a good salesperson, you have to develop a strong closing technique. This part of the sale is so critical that some companies actually hire two sets of salespeople – the prospectors and the closers. But if you want to be a rounded salesperson , you should be the embodiment of these two. It means that you can initiate, develop, and close a sale in one fluid action. Before we go to the different techniques you can use to close a sale, you have to know first the five basic principles of a sale.

Timing is important.

Once you feel that the sales agreement between you and your customer is reached, you have to act swiftly. Let them sign the necessary forms and supply the necessary information needed to process the sale. Treat the moment that they say “yes” as a bell chiming, which signifies that you are just a few moments away from success.

Learn the proper timing in closing the deal

If time is important, then timing is of paramount concern too. As a good salesperson, you should act at the right instant. If you act too soon or too late, you might lose a sale before you know it. And to keep yourself from guessing as to when the right time to pounce on the deal will be, always try turning the tables around to your favour. Instead of your customers dictating the pace of the transaction, you take over. But before you can do that, your sensitivity should be at work all the time. If you feel that your customers is only half-decided, encourage them towards the right path.

You can negotiate by giving more discounts, offering freebies, extending warranties, and things like that. You have to lead your customer all the way to the end of the sale. If they seem to be really backing out, try one or two different moves; not desperation moves but persuasive moves. You still have to maintain the dignity of your products. Remember that you don’t have to go too low for a sale. You are offering your customers a good product. If they won’t buy, it is really their loss. But because of your concern for them, you are still offering them a last chance to buy the product. A chance that may not be offered to them some other time.

Scarcity sometimes work.

While this may be true, don’t overdo it. If you are selling a prime property for example, you are not supposed to tell your customer outright that you might as well call somebody you know who is also inquiring about the property and is probably more than willing to accept what you just offered him. The instant they thought they were regarded unimportantly is the moment they walk out. Using the threat of their possible competition would show who among your customers want the product that you are selling more. Use scarcity as a tool to gauge your customer with. The customer will, more often than not, respond honestly to this. Above all, don’t lie.

Know what to say after they made the decision to buy.

The smart thing to do is ask them if they would be interested in an “advanced” or “deluxe” version of the product (if any) or if they would like a product that compliments the main product. (Example: Would you like this cool pair of socks that match perfectly with your shoes?)

Not all sales deals lead to a close

The sales figures of almost all companies would show that the ratio between the number of potential customers and the number of closed deal are miles apart. But this doesn’t mean that you have to succumb to the numbers. As a good salesperson, you have the power to raise the percentages to considerable heights.

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My Prospecting Process

Get Contact Names

Once you have identified your list of viable suspects, you will need to uncover a contact name of the decision maker. Social media and the internet are useful, but they best way is to call up the company and ask them. Now, your company may have already given you a database to work on. I wouldn’t trust that the information is correct and so I would advise you still call them up anyway. If you are introducing your product or service by using some kind of marketing material, this can be a gentle way to kick off the relationship.

For instance, you could say to the person who answers the phone: “Hello, I wonder if you could help me. I am looking to send some information to the person responsible for XXX, about XXX and I am just wondering who I need to send it to.” If you stop there, one of three things will happen:

They give you the name – make a note of it, thank them and hang up. (They may even put you straight through).

They don’t know who you should send it to – in this case send it through to the most likely Job Title or department.

They have a no-name policy – see point 2.

Letters

Once you have your contact name, post off your literature or brochure along with a covering letter. If you would like a MS Word copy of a prospecting letter template, contact me and I will send you the one I use.

Telephone Prospecting

Give the prospect about 2 or 3 days to receive the letter before you call them up. Telephone prospecting is the first stage of selling process, proper. It’s not for the faint hearted, but if you get good at it, it can pay handsomely. Remember where the prospect might be in their buying cycle. If they call you, you are more likely to have competition.

Before making the calls, get yourself into the right frame of mind. If you work from home, get ready as if you were going to the office: showered, suited and booted. Organise your environment accordingly, with everything you need. Remove all possible distractions. Standing up is a great idea, it gives dynamism to your voice. Smile while you dial. The prospect will hear it in your voice. Be polite and thank them for their time.

Scripts

If you would like a copy of a telephone prospecting template, contact me.

Cold Call Reluctance

A final word about cold call reluctance. There is a saying from where I come from – “Shy kids get nowt”. Otherwise translated as if you don’t ask you don’t get. If the thought of cold telephone calling fills you with dread, you are not alone. You have to get over it though. There are many ways to overcome cold call reluctance. One trick is to translate each phone call into a £ amount. For instance lets say you get 1.5% commission for each sale. Using our figures from the post on sales targets, each telephone call earns you £2.50, that’s £62.50 a day.

Another trick is to reframe it. Instead of ringing for a yes, you are collecting nos. How many no’s can you get today. This is a trick I learnt in a book called Go for No! Remember the more no’s you get the more yeses you will get.

The best cure for cold call reluctance, though, is to just do it and do it repeatedly. Do a little and often every day. Soon enough your mantra will be 25 calls a day, that’s just what I do. Twenty five calls a day that’s my job. Twenty five calls a day. If you would like coaching in prospecting or overcoming cold call reluctance, please do get in touch .

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Prospecting

Assuming that you are in business, you will need a steady flow of new customers. Much of the modern business literature talks about marketing, especially on-line, on the one hand. On the other side, there is a lot written about face-to-face sales technique and the dark arts of influence. Prospecting for new business today is still an essential part of the selling process. With internet marketing, the customer is becoming more and better informed.

Once the customer has identified their own need and made a decision to buy, they will then conduct their online search. The customer may or may not stumble upon your website, depending on how optimised your site is for the Search Engines. If your business has a strong traditional marketing presence or brand, they may visit your site, along with your competitors. Either way the customer is in the research frame of mind will probably build a short list of potential service providers. Hopefully you will be on this short list, so that your phone rings or your inbox pings, but “Hopefully you will be on this short list”, is not good enough for the professional salesperson. The successful sales person doesn’t wait for the phone to ring or email to ping. She makes things happen. Prospecting is how you make things happen.

Prospecting

Prospect is the first skill for you to practise. Think of prospecting for customers as gold prospecting. You are literally sifting through people and sorting out those who are ready to buy from those who aren’t.
For instance let’s say you have one hundred prospects. If you sorted them out by their likelihood to buy it may look something like this:

100 prospects:

• 30 People are ready to buy right now. They have their credit card ready. Don’t dilly-dally with these people. Take their credit card details there and then. They don’t want to hear about features and benefits; this might actually put them off buying. All they need to hear is “Sign here please and we can get started”. Make them a customer now.
• 30 People are shopping. This is a good group to spend time with, as you can tell them the benefits of you, your product and company. This is especially true if they are members of your niche market.
• 30 people are curious. Don’t waste much time with these people. Give them some information and let them come back to you later.
• 10 People will never buy from you. Ignore them.

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