Businesses need to reevaluate their sales strategies, as customers continually change how they make their purchase decisions. Such changes in customer behavior present a thin line between persuasively marketing your products or services and sounding annoying and arrogant. However, with a solid strategy, your company can be in a better position to maintain consistent sales and close more deals. That said, here are five strategies that your sales personnel should leverage when closing deals.
1. Identify the Decision-Maker
Regardless of your industry, identifying the decision-maker is crucial to closing deals quickly. Presenting a convincing sales pitch involves providing insightful information and answering their questions accurately. Note that decision-makers often send their juniors to listen to presentations made by marketing teams.
If such is the case, ensure that you tailor your sales pitch to suit the decision-maker's interests, even if they didn’t attend the pitch. Obviously, the best option would be sitting with the decision-maker. So, do whatever it takes to land a meeting with this particular person.
2. Understand the Difference Between Selling and Closing Deals
Most marketing teams don’t understand that selling and closing deals are completely different. Most people are excellent at selling - right from describing the value proposition - but aren’t that great at closing deals. Simply put, selling involves providing a convincing value proposition to clients, while closing deals involves signing agreements.
That said, if you struggle to make a close, you aren’t making a sales proposition at all. You need to ensure the prospect is ready to close the deal. To ace this, practice the sales pitch and closing techniques separately to get a clear picture of these distinct phases.
3. Ask Early
When it comes to closing deals, asking early is one of the best things that you can do as it evaluates the readiness of your clients. You might be making progress, and the client seems to be buying into your products or services, even before you proceed deeper into the presentation. Though risky, asking if they are ready to make a decision determines if you can make the close immediately or if you need to do a little more convincing.
If you get a resounding “No,” proceed with your demonstrations and revisit the question at the end. Surprisingly, most clients are convinced within 10 minutes of a 30-minute presentation. Plus, closing deals early saves you from boring clients and taking up more of their time with excessive information that they don’t need.
4. Be Ready for Objections
Marketing teams should always be ready and learn how to deal with objections before hitting the sales forecasting metrics. If you have done this before, you’ve probably come across comments such as “We don’t have enough budget for your product,” or “We can’t make purchase decisions today,” and many more.
However, you can deftly maneuver around clients’ objections to successfully close the deal. On the other hand, you should expect a frank admission that your proposition wasn’t enough to convince them into buying your products. Either way, preparing and learning how to deal with objections cautions you from embarrassment or the possibility of being put off without knowing the underlying reasons.
As a pro tip, compile all potential objections that you expect when closing deals and prepare appropriate responses. You can find someone to act as the client and rehearse in advance.
5. Be Flexible with Financing
Payments and cost of products should be a deal-breaker when closing deals. For instance, if the client can’t afford your products or services, provide flexible monthly payment options. Similarly, if they are hesitant to purchase premium products with high price tags, offer low-cost versions with slightly similar features. If the client understood the benefits of the product, they might consider taking up a more affordable or payment-flexible option.
Bottom Line
Marketing teams understand the feeling that comes with shaking hands after closing a deal. However, the events that precede this excitement are undeniably challenging, and most sales personnel dread them. Having identified your clients’ problems, provide a solid value proposition, demonstrate a sense of urgency, and implement the strategies mentioned above to close deals effectively.