7 Ways to Close EVERY Sale

What is the main reason for business problems? If you were to analyse the reasons, you will come up with one common reason - lack of sales. What then causes the lack of sales? Is it the economy? Product? Pricing? I say that at the end of the day, it can boil down to one cause: the salesperson did not close the sale.

How important is closing the sale? Well, if you are not closing sales for your own company, you are closing sales for your competitor. For the prospect will simply go to whoever that closes on him, even though he may not be close to him.

Sales Closing is defined as Moving the Sale forward. Throughout the different steps in the sales process, the salesperson has to close the sale and move the sales process forward, not backward.

Many salespeople know that selling is just about 4 steps: you first have to find the prospect, you need to present to the prospect, you have to answer the prospect’s questions and you follow-up with the prospect until close. At every step, the salesperson is either closing the sale or closing the file.

There are 7 Ways that one can close EVERY sale:
1. Make Sure You’ve Got Very Solid Prospect
If your prospect is one of very high quality, i.e. one that almost wants to buy now, you can close him 100%. Usually this happens when they look for you for you and you are the only one that has what they are looking for. Usually monopolies enjoy this privilege.

2. You Follow-up with Every Prospect Until You Close Them
In sales, it is important to follow-up with all prospects. Statistics show that if a salesperson follow-up diligently with prospects 7 to 9 times over the course of 6 to 12 months, he would have closed them. If not, the prospect would chase away the salesperson!

3. You Convert Every Prospect into a Referrer
Yes, a salesperson should ask for referral each and every time he does a presentation. If you cannot close on your prospect, you can save him some embarrassment of having to explain to you why he cannot buy. In fact when you ask him for referrals, he would be more than happy to give referrals to you because you are saving him trouble! And who knows you can convert the referred lead into a client, that’s why we say getting referrals is as good as having ‘closed’ on the prospect.

4. You Give your Prospect an Irresistible Offer
An irresistible offer is one that no prospect in this world can resist. Most of them time it is an attractive price, but many times it is about extra things that one cannot get elsewhere. Like limited edition free gifts for credit card application, many people simply cannot resist them. An irresistible offer can also be one where you break down your pricing into monthly or even daily amounts, and that amount will look attractive when compared to other daily expenses like a cup of coffee. Many insurance agents break down the yearly premium of $3,285 into daily like $7.50, which is less than 2 cups of Starbucks coffee. Very attractive indeed! Those that sell to corporate accounts would justify the purchase with very attractive Return-on-Investment (ROI), short Pay-Back Period or Positive Net Present Value (NPV).  For details on the 7 ways to an irresistible offer, read this article at here.

5. You Change Your Offer to Suit the Prospect’s Needs and Wants
All successful salespeople know that nothing is cast in stone. So if you cannot close the prospect with your current offer, you can simply change your offer to one that suits him. In fact many retailers do this by coming up with ‘Sale’, and customers usually fall for it. For no one in this world can reject a salesperson that is so accomodating and flexible. Sales also take place during courtship when men change their life styles to suit the girl that they are after (e.g. give up smoking).

6. You Offer a 100% Written Guarantee to Remove The Fear
Yes, customers dare not say yes to the salesperson’s proposal for they have some fears that they would lose out if they say yes. If this is the case you must ask them what is really holding them back and then offer a Guarantee in Writing to remove that fear. For example, an extended warranty certificate is one that is used all the time to sell electronics products that do not have reliable brand.

7. You Move the Sale Forward
Yes, even though you did not get the contract or won the tender, you are moving the sale forward when the prospect now has a more favourable opinion of what you offer. The next time he may simply give you the business and that’s why we define this as closing the sale. In big project sales with long sales cycle, it could mean getting clearance from the relevant authorities.

The above summarizes 7 most common ways to close EVERY Sale. `Practice them and you’ll get better. Remember, if you don’t close the sale for your company, you are closing the sale for your competitor. If you too want to get the most out of your sales, practice the above 7 ways and you’ll reap the rewards like what my coaching clients and seminar participants have achieved. For more information, email to andy@asiacoachingtraining.com, visit www.asiatrainers.com/SeminarsList.php or call Andy Ng at 6225-1784 during office hours. Related articles on sales include:

• The 13 Low Cost High Value Things to Give to Customers
• How to multiply your sales in 7 ways
• How to Create an Irresistible Offer without Dropping Your Price
• Be the solution to your customers in 7 ways
• Differentiate or Die: the 8 ways to sell differently
• The 7 Negative Techniques that Sell Positively
• The 7 Positive Sales Techniques that Sell