{"id":2875,"date":"2020-08-09T11:13:49","date_gmt":"2020-08-09T16:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kmbrian.com\/?p=2875"},"modified":"2020-12-04T13:54:15","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T19:54:15","slug":"sales-closing-techniques","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/sales-closing-techniques\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Close a Sale (15 Sales Closing Techniques)"},"content":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s nothing more important in the world of sales than closing. Seriously. You can reach out<\/a> to the best qualified prospects<\/a> in the world, and you can enter them into a world-class nurturing sequence<\/a>. But if you can\u2019t ultimately get them to pull the trigger and close the deal, all of that effort will have been for nothing.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, 30% of salespeople say \u201cclosing deals<\/a> has gotten harder compared to 2 to 3 years ago,\u201d according to Hubspot research<\/a>. If you\u2019re falling below the average sales close rate of 20%<\/a>, it\u2019s time to up your game. Give the following 15 closing techniques a try on your next call.<\/p>\n We all understand that \u201cclosing the deal\u201d is about persuading your lead to buy from you.<\/p>\n But more specifically, it\u2019s about transitioning from your pitch \u2013 during which you\u2019ve talked about the various benefits of your product and how it answers your lead\u2019s problems \u2013 to agreeing a sale.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not as easy as it sounds. Asking your lead to sign on the dotted line can disrupt the flow of the meeting and destroy the natural rapport you\u2019ve worked so hard to build up. No wonder that 28% of salespeople say\u00a0closing is the hardest part of their job<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sales closing techniques are designed to smooth the salesperson\u2019s path from pitching a product to asking for business. They\u2019re a way of seamlessly integrating the close into your pitch, giving you the best possible chance of getting the desired result at the end of the meeting \u2013 without having to resort to overly pushy tactics that run the risk of derailing a business relationship before it\u2019s even begun.<\/p>\n Chances are you\u2019re not going to close the whole deal during a call. Most likely, that\u2019ll require an in-person meeting, or at the very least a video conference.<\/p>\n However,\u00a0every\u00a0<\/em>sales call should still have some type of \u201cclose\u201d \u2013 in other words, the action that you want the person on the other end of the phone to agree to \u2013 in mind. Chances are it\u2019ll be one of the following objectives:<\/p>\n Whatever the objective, the \u201cclose\u201d should be an integral component to effectively concluding your call, not just a tacked-on afterthought once you\u2019ve reeled through your elevator pitch. Having gleaned the necessary information from your prospect,\u00a0raising the right questions<\/a>\u00a0along the way, you should be able to naturally segue into asking them to take the desired action.<\/p>\n Give the following 15 closing techniques a try on your next call:<\/p>\n This closing technique earned a lot of attention after it was mentioned by Tim Ferriss in his popular book, The Four Hour Workweek<\/em><\/a>. Its premise is simple: offer to let well-qualified leads try something out, hoping that – once they experience the value – they\u2019ll be unwilling to give it back.<\/p>\n You may have seen this technique in action at the pet store, where families who are on-the-fence about adopting a furry new friend are encouraged to take pets home for the weekend and return them if it doesn\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n Would you take advantage of that offer after spending several days bonding with your new friend? Yeah, most people don\u2019t.<\/p>\n You can apply this technique to the sales of any product or service, with one word of caution: you have to be confident that you can prove value in a very short timeframe. If you\u2019re selling a complex SaaS product with a month-long onboarding process, for example, this one isn\u2019t for you.<\/p>\n Humans are hard-wired to want to act<\/a> in the face of perceived scarcity. Leverage this instinct in the case of closing by increasing urgency with a limited-time offer or special promotion.<\/p>\n Just be genuine, if you\u2019re going to use this one. You\u2019ll lose credibility with your lead – and potentially damage your relationship with future prospects if word gets out about your business practices – if you lie about an offer being truly scarce.<\/p>\n Negotiation happens in the sales process<\/a>. And that\u2019s fine – if you can learn to use it to your advantage.<\/p>\n If a lead asks you for some type of concession, offer to grant it, but only if they\u2019re willing to close that same day. Obviously, the concession they\u2019re requesting has to be reasonable. But if it\u2019s something you can grant, the concession close can turn the negotiation process into a win-win for both of you.<\/p>\n This technique takes its name from a classic 1970s TV show, Columbo<\/em>, whose lead character – a detective with the last name Columbo – was famous for seemingly ending an interrogation before turning around and asking, \u201cJust one more thing\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n In the world of sales, this close is most often used to uncover a hidden objection that\u2019s holding up the sale. Once you\u2019ve made it clear that the meeting or call is ending, slip in a question that cuts to the heart of the matter and earns you valuable information.<\/p>\n Michael Angelo Caruso, writing for dbusiness<\/a>, has a great example: \u201cNow that the presentation is over, may I just ask . . . why didn\u2019t you buy from me today?\u201d<\/p>\n To use this technique, frame the language you use as you\u2019re ending your pitch in a way that assumes the deal is done.<\/p>\n Hubspot offers three examples<\/a> that you can customize to your needs:<\/p>\n If your leads are struggling to say yes – whether due to costs or some other factor – you can always offer to take away one or more features to make the deal more appealing.<\/p>\n Ideally, this doesn\u2019t result in you closing a smaller deal. Instead – like a kid that\u2019s been told they can\u2019t have a toy they really want – your lead may wind up wanting the features even more, eventually closing the original deal you\u2019d proposed.<\/p>\n This \u201cold school\u201d close draws inspiration from Ben Franklin, who famously persuaded people to his side of an argument through the savvy use of pros and cons lists.<\/p>\n To use this in a sales setting, you\u2019d summarize the pros and cons of your offering for your client, encouraging them to make a decision based on the list that\u2019s stronger. The catch? To be successful, the pros list in favor of your offering should be at least 2-3X more valuable<\/a> than the cons they outweigh.<\/p>\n The artisan close involves emphasizing to your leads how much time, energy or effort has gone into developing and delivering your product – the same way an artist might talk about the hundreds of hours that went into a painting or sculpture.<\/p>\n You need two things to make this close successful. First, it won\u2019t work if you sell a low-value product or service. And second, your leads have to care. If they\u2019re especially price sensitive, your company\u2019s investment in its offering may not carry much weight.<\/p>\n This is a fun one. Rather than doing the heavy lifting of closing a deal, you put the onus on your leads by asking them what they believe the next steps should be.<\/p>\n To be clear, this only works if your leads are basically already at the finish line. Otherwise, you risk hearing that their next steps will be \u201ctalk to another decision-maker\u201d or \u201chave a meeting and get back to you.\u201d Lead them into it with a \u201cyes ladder<\/a>\u201d of questions that gets them in the habit of answering in the affirmative and ensures you\u2019ve resolved all possible objections.<\/p>\n This framework comes from Saleshacker<\/a> contributor Emily Meyer, and it involves four steps:<\/p>\n Sales opportunities won\u2019t always proceed this smoothly, but having a framework like this in place at least allows you to ensure you\u2019re moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n This hands-free technique from Mark Daoust is easy to implement: simply stop calling back and let prospects take the initiative to reach out to you when they\u2019re ready to buy.<\/p>\n As Daoust notes in his Entrepreneur article<\/a>, however, there are three things that have to be true for this approach to work:<\/p>\n After that? Being seen as a partner – not a pest – can prove profitable.<\/p>\n Visualizing success has a proven impact<\/a> on everything from self-confidence to sports performance. With this close, you turn the full power of this practice on your prospects by encouraging them to imagine the full impact of purchasing your product or service.<\/p>\n Leverage whatever pain points they\u2019ve shared with you to make the visualization as effective as possible. Once they can see themselves enjoying the benefits of your offering, closing becomes much easier.<\/p>\n According to Tim Riesterer of Corporate Visions<\/a>, most B2B salespeople admit that there\u2019s as much as 70% overlap between their solutions and their competitors.<\/p>\n So rather than trying to sell your solution from the ground up, focus instead on the 30% of your offering that\u2019s different from others you\u2019re going up against – aka, your \u201cvalue wedge.\u201d Focusing there helps your pitch stand out from others who are pitching generic benefits for relatively similar products or services.<\/p>\n On the Yesware blog, Gwen Lamar shares a simple framework for driving a close:<\/p>\n It\u2019s simple, but in her experience, it taps into people\u2019s natural inclination to appreciate patterns and repetition. According to Lamar, there\u2019s also science behind this one. She writes, \u201cA study by UCLA<\/a> also found three to be the perfect number in settings like sales emails where consumers know that the message source has a persuasion motive. Anything above three sparks skepticism from your prospect.\u201d<\/p>\n This one is exactly what it sounds like: the high-pressure, high-intensity \u201chard\u201d close that\u2019s long been associated with salespeople.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not always appropriate, but it\u2019s often effective when a situation calls for clarity over ambiguity (like when a lead shows signs of life for months, but never actually pulls the trigger). Use it sensitively, but always keep it in your sales arsenal.<\/p>\n There are a few clues in the explanations above, describing when different techniques should be used. But when you\u2019re actually in a meeting or on a call with a lead, you won\u2019t have time to refer back to this list.<\/p>\n Here are three different signals you can watch for that\u2019ll clue you into the kind of closing technique that\u2019s best suited to the situation:<\/p>\n Does your lead\u2019s voice sound warm or excited? If so, your sales presentation is likely on the right track. But if they\u2019re sounding more curt, short or irritated, these could be signals to change up your approach.<\/p>\n The same goes for body language. Eye contact, a head tilting towards you, and a forward, engaged posture are all signs that you\u2019re being positively received. Leaning back in a chair and crossed arms are two signs that the techniques you\u2019re using aren\u2019t landing.<\/p>\n Measuring personality types is an inexact science. Every person is unique, and responds to stimuli in a different way, based on past experiences, cultural conditioning and more.<\/p>\n That said, there are personality frameworks that can be used to guide the sales process. The popular DISC model, for example, is based on four personality types<\/a>: dominant, inspiring, supportive and cautious.<\/p>\nWhat Are Sales Closing Techniques?<\/h2>\n
How to End a Sales Call<\/h2>\n
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The 15 best sales closing techniques<\/h2>\n
The \u201cPuppy Dog\u201d Close<\/h3>\n
The Scarcity Close<\/h3>\n
The Concession Close<\/h3>\n
The \u201cColumbo\u201d Close
<\/h3>\n
The Assumptive Close<\/h3>\n
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The Take Away Close<\/h3>\n
The \u201cBen Franklin\u201d Close<\/h3>\n
The \u201cArtisan\u201d Close
<\/h3>\n
The \u201cNext Steps\u201d Close<\/h3>\n
The \u201cS.A.R.B\u201d Close<\/h3>\n
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The \u201cHard to Get\u201d Close<\/h3>\n
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The \u201cVisualization\u201d Close
<\/h3>\n
The \u201cValue Wedge\u201d Close<\/h3>\n
The \u201c1-2-3\u201d Close<\/h3>\n
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The \u201cHard\u201d Close<\/h3>\n
How to Close a Sale
<\/h2>\n
Verbal and Non-Verbal Cues<\/h3>\n
Personality Clues<\/h3>\n