|
Home / Business / Sales
6 Steps to Closing the Sale
By:Jim Klein
When it comes to closing the 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 the 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.
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.
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 the 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 the 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.
I have given you an overview of the closing process, however there is much more to closing the sale. Far to many details to discuss in this article. So I have created a free 4 day e-course to give you more indepth strategies and closes.
Do you have only one or two closes in your arsenal? Is your best close, well, what do you think? or the real powerhouse, can I put you down for one? Or do you just want to master the closing process so you can increase your sales?
Then take my free four part mini course where I go deeper in to the process of closing the sale.
Digg
del.icio.us
Blink
Stumble
Spurl
Reddit
Netscape
Furl
Article keywords: closing the sale, closing a sale, sales training, sales techniques, sales tips, sales skills
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com
Get instant access to my free mini course on closing the sale.
Jim Klein provides salespeople with effective strategies to increase their business while working less, guaranteed.
|
|
| Top Sales Articles |
- 1). Why Use Lead Management Software? By : Halstatt Pires
Having a popular website, or popular company of any type, is entirely dependant on sales. Effective sales at that. Maintaining a healthy profit is key to the long-term survival of your web site or business and this means knowing the difference between your effective sales leads and your ineffective sales leads.
Small Business Owner
Lead management software is perfect for the small business owner or webmaster of a website.
|
- 2). Power Words By : Wendy Weiss
I conducted a teleconference a few weeks ago with people who were new in sales and new to prospecting. The focus of the call was to help participants get beyond fear and understand their prospecting process.
One of the participants on the call told me that she had been given the telephone prospecting script that her team leader uses to set appointments.
|
- 3). Secrets to Getting Paid for Your Creative Ideas and Proposals By : Kirstin Carey
Many creative professionals such as event planners, interior designers, and decorative painters are frustrated when potential clients steal their ideas and take them to cheaper companies. They present their ideas in a proposal or presentation and later find that they didn’t get the client and their designs are being used by someone else.
PROTECT YOUR IDEAS
In order to protect your ideas and still get the client, you have to change how you deliver your concepts and specifically what you present.
|
|
|
- 5). What’s the Objective of Your 1st Sales Appointment? By : Jeff Hardesty
Have you defined what you want to happen at the conclusion of your 1st appointment? Only then can you actually set up a proficient sales methodology to achieve the defined objective more times than not. And with a pre-defined objective to your 1st appointment you can (1) set a realistic benchmark of success and (2) measure the outcome. It becomes part of your sales performance scorecard.
|
- 6). Stop Cold Calling and Double Your Sales in 30 Days By : Hartley Pinn
Everyone knows what “cold calling” is, but how about “warm calling”? That’s easy, warm calling involves contacting your former clients and people you have already identified as prospects.
These are the people you had made previous contact with and are listed in your database or on your Rolodex. If appropriate for your industry, I recommend spending one hour a day calling your database.
|
- 7). Restaurant Supply a Lifesaver for Caterer By : Kingston Amadan
A few years ago, I was working as a catering manager of a local historic hotel. The hotel had been in terrible condition for many years until a group of investors purchased it and began the long arduous process of renovation. They were able to get the majority of it renovated before the funding started to run out, at which time they opened for business to offset some of the costs of ownership.
|
- 8). Employers Keep Screening Out Great Sales Candidates By : Robert Cameron
Companies hiring sales reps stick to the same old hiring practices, and hire low performers that turn over, while screening out some of the best candidates. Robert Cameron examines two hiring myths and shows you how to easily select sales people who can sell.
|
- 9). The Five Cardinal Sins Salespeople Commit By : Bill Brooks
We have very candid conversations with the sales professionals who come to our seminars and through those discussions we’ve discovered five critical errors that most salespeople make. Of course, we help them correct those mistakes, but it’s somewhat surprising as to how common they are.
Here are the mistakes, see if you commit them in your own sales career.
|
- 10). The Downlow on Buying and Selling Concert Tickets Online By : Jared Lock
Buying concert tickets online isn’t scary. In fact, it’s as easy as visiting Google and typing in the event you are looking for and follow with the word “tickets”. However, a couple of questions may come to mind when browsing for sports or concert tickets.
1. Why are tickets so expensive on the internet? On Ticketmaster the tickets are so much cheaper.
|
| New Sales Articles |
|
|
- 2). 7 Strategies for Loan Officers to Guarantee an Awesome 2006 By : Joe Pahl
With the coming high interest rate market, loan officers who follow these seven strategies will guarantee having a successful 2006. The stratgies include new technology, proper planning, business referral groups, and maximizing your "geese that lays golden eggs" among others.
|
|
|
|
|
- 5). Dealing with the RIGHT Decision Maker By : Tim Hagen
Dealing with different decision making styles and decision makers appropriately is a big part of being successful in sales. This article will provide background to the different types of personalities that can be encountered in the sales process.
|
|
|
|
|
- 8). Closing A Sale: Promise and Deliver! By : Hartley Pinn
One of the chief complaints from customers about the way business is conducted these days centers on customer service. Either the service aspect is completely lacking or what has been promised to the customer hasn’t been kept. Dealing with the latter category, it is easy to see why customers are disappointed: sales people routinely over promise and then fail to deliver.
|
|
|
- 10). Sell Services Online By : Eggbilly
Is it possible to take a normal offline service business like a legal practice, private medical practitioner or even a real estate business and make money with it from the Internet?
As someone who’s been doing this since 1996, I say the answer is a resounding “YES”.
If you are a business owner, or even an affiliate marketer, you know how hard it is to make a living online.
|
|
|
