Closing the Deal: Separate the Prospects from the Suspects

POST AN ARTICLE

Featured Sales Blogs

In Partnership Wth:

DiversityJobs.com

JustJobs.com

MAIN MENU

Closing the Deal: Separate the Prospects from the Suspects

Written by Mark Hunter -The Sales Hunter

More Gravy
6 Steps to Closing a Sale

When I'm driving to an a appointment I'm not listening to the radio, I'm imagining how the sale is going to end up, me closing the sale. When I arrive at the appointment I sit in my car for a few minutes, close my eyes and visualize every thing happening just as I want it to. I see the prospect approving the contract, giving me the check and us shaking hands and smiling.

{mosimage}When it comes to closing a sale do you really know how to close? Do you freeze up afraid to close or don't know what to say? Do you know how and when to close a sale or even if the prospect is interested in your product? Well, read on and I'll share with you six ways to overcome these common challenges and increase your closing ratio.

Your Attitude Makes a Huge Difference

Before going to any appointment get yourself in the right frame of mind. Go in with the attitude that you will close the sale.

If your attitude going in is negative you might as well get back in your car and go home.

ABC - Always be Closing

Be prepared to close the sale at any time. Be ready to close when you walk in the door. The sales process doesn't have to continue through all the steps. You can close a sale at any time.

I have seen many salespeople with a prospect who is ready to buy, money in hand, waving it in the air, however, the salesperson stops them and says wait, I haven't finished my presentation yet, let me tell you how great I am.

They've been taught to go through all the steps so they keep talking and many times talk themselves out of a sale.

At any point during the sales process the prospect is ready to buy...close the sale.

Understanding What They Want and Need

"Closing is the process of helping people make decisions that are good for them"

Closing a sale begins when you qualify the prospect. Make sure you are qualifying every prospect thoroughly. Determine their emotional wants and their motives.

It's at this stage the prospect will tell you their hot buttons and give you the road map to close them. Also they will become comfortable with you and by showing an interest in their needs you will set your self apart from all the other salespeople.

How to Recognize Buying Signs

Buyers will often give you signs they want what you're selling. These signs can either be verbal or visual. Let's start with the verbal.

A buyer may start asking more questions. They nod their head in agreement. They require more in depth information. They start talking about how things will be when they own the product.

Some visual signs to watch for are a smile, a raising of the eyebrows or moving closer to you so they can see better. If it's a couple they may show more affection or they may look at each other in a certain way.

When you have memorized your presentation you can be more aware of these buying signs and your closing ratio will increase dramatically.

When you know what you are going to say and don't need to think about it, your sales will increase dramatically because you can sit back and watch their body language and buying signals and you'll know when they're ready to buy.

How to Make the Decision to Close the Sale

When you have qualified the prospect properly, the buying signs are there and you know they want to buy, make the decision that the best thing for them is to buy.

Then focus your attention on talking about the things they like or feel are important as you close the sale. Put your personal feelings about your product or service aside and focus on the buyer.

Assume the Sale

If you've done everything right and the buying signs are there, assume the sale and begin filling out the order or what ever the next step is. Keep moving ahead until they stop you. If you did your job and your closing the sale at the right time, they won't stop you.

We've all been there. After countless calls, meetings and an endless amount of work, you just can't get the customer to say "yes" and move forward. There can be hundreds of theories and ideas as to why this happens more times than we care to admit. Let's put all the theories aside and get to a solution you can use right now to determine if the customer is serious.

The problem in these types of situations is as a salesperson, you've invested time and effort and the last thing you want to do is quit and walk away. You are thinking, "The prospect could be very close to saying 'yes.'" It's either your pride that doesn't allow you to walk away or it's the fear of having to report to your sales manager that the work you've done with a prospect is not going to materialize into any business.

The answer is in being able to determine if the prospect is truly a prospect or nothing more than a suspect in disguise. After having worked with thousands of salespeople, I know the number one solution is to get the customer involved in the buying process. That's right – get them involved. If they're not willing to be involved, then they're just using you either for information or because they are afraid to tell you "no." You can get them involved by asking them to do something for you after you've left. If a customer is truly interested, they'll do something for you. If they're not interested, they won't. It's that simple.

Next time a customer stalls out on you, ask them as a next step to review something for you. It might be a report you're going to email to them or it might be something on a website. The key is to see if they will provide some input to you. This simple activity is one of the best ways to measure how serious a prospect is in doing business with you. Someone who is serious will do what you ask them to; someone who is not won't. Their response to what you ask them to do will not only give you a sense of their level of commitment, but also may give them a quick "out" to indeed tell you they are not interested. Either way, it allows you to move forward. Either they are a serious prospect or it's time to drop them and move on.

Another great tool to measure the seriousness of a prospect is to ask them to share with you some proprietary information. It might be a question you ask regarding the strategic focus of their business or how their volumes are for this month. It can be almost anything, but when you ask them a question that requires them to reveal something that is not known outside the company, you will quickly determine if the customer has confidence in you. Since confidence is what customers are really buying, then a key to knowing if a sale is going to occur is if they will share with you something of proprietary nature.

Keep in mind that neither of these two techniques is 100% foolproof in determining if a customer is serious. However, in using this approach across numerous industries and thousands of salespeople, I've found it to be the most time efficient method to separate prospects from suspects. In the end, the only sales you're going to close are going to be with prospects who show interest in what you're providing and confidence in how you're providing it.

Mark Hunter -The Sales Hunter
		About the author:
		Mark Hunter, "The Sales Hunter," helps individuals and companies identify better prospects, close more sales, and profitably build more long-term customer relationships." Few people have the breadth of sales experience that Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter” has experienced. His years of experience in senior-level positions and his years as a sales consultant has allowed him to experience every type of sales call imaginable across industries too numerous to mention. .