Close the sale

Recognise and use to good advantage every closing opportunity - efficiently, effectively and successfully throughout the entire sales process

Closing opportunities

If you have difficulty recognising closing opportunities and using them to good advantage, the chances are you're not listening properly to what the prospect or customer is saying (or not asking the right questions in the first place - but that's a separate issue).

It's easy to be distracted into thinking about the next point you want to make and fail to concentrate and actively listen, so you actually miss any buying signal that you're given. This may seem a bit blunt, but try remembering that you have two ears and one mouth, and that it's a good idea to use them in that ratio!

Buying signals

One of the skills you need to hone in any sales situation is your ability to pick up on buying signals that could be anything from a seemingly innocuous comment to a great big bell clanging (figuratively) in your head. And they will often be offered up at various stages as a result of the conversational questioning techniques you use.

When you hear what you believe to be one, investigate it, question it and find out for certain:

Try to get committal

In order to do so you can use:

• A straightforward assumptive statement followed immediately with a tie down
• Question, need, benefit sequence (works well where there's room for confusion, the problem is particularly complex or you're really not certain in your own mind that you've understood it and need to clarify it)
• An alternative question (good when you're fairly certain that there are two different needs emerging and it's not clear which is the most important or has the highest priority)

You'll either get agreement or the prospect will contradict you and tell you what he really means and needs. Either way you have your committal.

You should be closing the prospect or customer all the way along the line, not just right at the end when you believe you have an opportunity to close the deal.

Let's put this into perspective:

If your prospects' (or customers') needs are at all complex or technical, or have far reaching ramifications throughout the company, then the buying process will reflect that. You will probably need to develop or refine your product, service or solution along the way to meet the specific needs of each company you do business with.

If this is the case you must commit and 'close' your prospects or customers to each phase of the sale, otherwise you'll find that you're constantly going back over previous issues that you thought had been adequately addressed and solved.

On the other hand, if yours is a more straightforward, simpler product, service or solution it's equally important that you know how to recognise opportunities to close each sale in a timely, cost efficient way, rather than allowing it to drag on.

The final close

Either way, by this stage of the sale, whether on the telephone or face-to-face, you will have accomplished most of the hard parts, so it's not far short of criminal to lose the business because you fail to close the sale properly. You'll soon find out how well you have gathered information, qualified the prospect/customer, identified and committed him to his need, and presented your solution tailored to that need.

Don't fail now!

Whilst there are several methods you can use help you out of a jam and get you back on course if you suddenly find you need them, there are only seven ways to close the sale, so there's really no excuse not to learn them:

7 ways to close the sale

• Order Buying
• Alternative
• Assumptive
• Sharp Angle
• Puppy Dog
• Minor Point
• Objection

The Assumptive close will probably always be the one that comes most naturally to you, but don't ignore the rest - Closing on a Minor Point, for example, is very gentle and can work very well. Be adventurous - identify which of the closes you could feel comfortable using and start trying them out.

One of two things will happen:

• The prospect or customer will go along with you - he's bought
• You'll get an objection that you can deal with (see The challenge of objections on this web site)