Hello my friend, Alexandra here, welcome back!!
Today, we’re talking CAREER & MONEY and I will be giving you 11 Amazing tips to close a sale.
If you have any questions for me, please ask! I’m reading your comments here, on my Facebook page and also checking #askalexandra on Instagram & Twitter.
Let’s start talking about today’s topic. Closing a sale. A common misconception about sales is that if you’re not in sales as a profession, you don’t need to know these things because they don’t apply to you. Wrong!
You are involved in sales more than you might think you are. Think of it this way: Say, your birthday is July 4th. You want to have a Birthday party, but you’re competing with one of the biggest national holidays. So how do you convince people to give up their family plans and hang with you instead? Sales! You have to pitch them something of value. You have to come up with a creative way to sell somebody into coming to your party, rather than enjoying the laziness and comfort of their own home.
When you hassle down a price, when you “convince” your spouse to take the trash out religiously rather than bitch it out of them, when you get your friends to go out when they felt like staying in. All that is sales. So you have to know how to be a salesperson and enhance your negotiation skills. Period. So this topic, is to a high extent for everyone.
To dive right in, let’s talk about closing. If closing was super easy, everybody would be a salesperson closing machine superstar millionaire. The reality is that in most cases, closing is hard as all hell. Especially if you’re in a competitive industry vertical, as many of them are nowadays. In my opinion, it’s much easier to prospect, research, and network, than close. Closing means asking for a commitment, asking for a signature, asking for money. And that’s when the cringing of the teeth happens.
4 of the most common reasons why sales don’t close are:
A) Being afraid or uncomfortable asking for money
B) Poor follow up
C) Overselling
D) Poor listening skills which ultimately result in the inability to properly understand the customers’ needs.
So, how can we improve our skills? Well, I have some of the best tips I’ve gathered not only from my personal experience, but from extensive research, reading, talking and learning from the best of the best. I was only 21 years only when I received a letter from Metropolitan magazine, because I was considered as one of the Who’s Who Among Executives and Professionals to be featured. At 21, I was closing over 10,000,000 a month. And trust me! When you close those kinds of numbers, you’ve gained some experience, and got your fare share of No’s.
So here are the tips:
#1
Research your prospect. This is something that is said so often, but you won’t believe how few actually do it. Trust me when I say, with so much access to information right now, it’s not that hard. Spend a good hour researching the person you’re meeting with. Find their LinkedIn profile, from there look up their Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Quora accounts. See where they went to school, maybe you have that in common. Try to find out if they have kids, what their hobbies are. Sometimes you can tell that by the groups they joined or pages they like. All this is ammunition for you. If you have something in common, you can far more easily build rapport and increase your likeability. Not only that, but if their dad just passed away, and you’re making some funny daddy joke, this person will write you off like that (snap fingers) without you even knowing it.
It might sound brutal, but in my opinion, this is such an important step, that if you don’t know who you're talking with, you risk looking like an idiot. So do research.
#2
I have a couple of points here pertaining to your physical interaction during the meeting.
First is to remain seated. The saying goes, make the presentation on your feet, but always negotiate from your seat. You want to make the person in front of you feel comfortable, and not rushed. Even if the prospect stands up, you remain seated in your chair. The moment you go from a seating position to standing up, subconsciously it’s interpreted as something changed and that will be your prospect’s window to be done with the meeting and end negotiations.
Second. Always smile. Selling is not just about the clothes that you wear, your attitude, or the things that you say, but it’s also about the way you carry yourself. From a nonpartisan point of view, it has been suggested that the reason Mitt Romney made such an impact for his campaign during the debates, was in large because of his demeanor. He had a permanent subtle smile on his face. The moment I realized that, it totally clicked. Every time when I was in meetings with previous clients, current clients or prospects, I had a smile on my face. 7 years later, I have those same clients reach out to me on Facebook and say “I remember you, you were always so sunny and bright”. When you smile, you create a good atmosphere around you, you give out pleasant energy that people want to be around. My challenge to you is for the next 14 days to practice smiling. With everyone. Get yourself to smile, even if you don’t feel like it. You will attract far more bees with honey than with this (show monotone face). That’s my million dollar tip for you.
Third suggestion I have for you pertaining to the interaction you have with your prospect is to make eye contact. You probably don’t realize, but more often than not, when we’re in a sales meeting, the adrenaline or nervousness, or whatever the reason, cause our eyes to do this (show up close, look around frantically). I had no idea I was doing that. I would have bet money that I’m perfect at connecting with my prospects. And then I saw myself on tape. I my eyes were on the walls, boards, carpet, chairs, everywhere but my customers’ eyes. Making constant eye contact is a discipline and it will take practice in order to master this. If you want to come off as a reliable, credible individual, you have to make eye contact with your prospect. When you do that, the person on the receiving end will see you as a confident individual, confident not only in yourself, but your product and what you’re selling. And that of course, is a huge selling point.
#3
Qualify your prospect’s needs. What’s the #1 thing people love to hear? The sound of their own voice. The persons in front of you would love to talk. If you allow them. Spend as much time as necessary qualifying a customer so that you sell them what they need. It’s not only good business, but it helps bring about a comfortable factor on your prospect’s end. They’ll feel like you’re interested in their needs, and not just your commission. Plus, it’s horrible to sell something that the customer will later be dissatisfied with and realize he didn’t need! There go the referrals down the drain too.
To qualify, you can ask questions along the lines of:
“What is your ultimate goal, what do you hope to achieve?”
"What will you be using this for?"
Figure out your prospect’s needs, and only recommend the right product or service. I would always tell my prospects: “I know we’re on a time crunch, but I want to spend most of our time understanding your needs and leave here with certainty that my product is indeed the best for you, as I’m sure you’d want me to do. If it’s not, it was a pleasure making a new friend. But if it IS, then I’m your gal”. You see that? Automatically you’d think: “Wow, this person is looking out for my best interest. Sounds good.” BAM!
Qualifying insures that you will sell More Value. In a price-sensitive market, the person who will win, is the person who can show more value than the asking price. And value is not universal. There isn’t a book saying that if you don’t get X, Y, Z, this isn’t of value! Value is determined individually. We all have a different interpretation of what’s of value and what’s not. And you will learn what’s most important to your prospect by spending the time to qualify them.
#4
Under Promise and Over Deliver.
A very common mistake that many rookie sales professionals make is to promise something that they cannot deliver. In the heat of wanting to get the deal, they promise the stars, and moon, and fairy dust. Never say I’ll get it to you by Friday, if it’s Tuesday PM and you know it takes 48 hours just for processing. Say: “I’m going to do everything within my power to get it to you right away. It does take 48 hours for processing. Realistically, you’ll have it Monday, but I’m in your corner so I’ll do everything that I can and see if it can be delivered sooner.”
It’s always best to set realistic expectations, because then you have ample opportunities to over deliver. And over delivering is seen by most customers as you going above and beyond for them. Under promising will just make you look like a lying asshole.
#5
Create a sense of urgency. If what you’re selling isn’t life dependent, a lot of times, folks on the other end of the deal will close the deal when they get around to it. Time is a deal killer. So you have to create a sense of urgency to get their commitment. And that may require some final discounts to refocus their attention. Say, if we’re closing this week, we’ll give you a % discount, or a two-year coverage instead of one. Let’s close this week, and you’ll have 24 hour access to me for the next month, while you try the product. Whatever it is, talk to your HBIC -the head bitch in charge of making these decisions at your company and get it done.
#6
Use the threat of competition. Unfortunately sometimes, deals might not be as important to a prospect, as is making sure their competition doesn’t do better than they are. Maybe it’s showing how using your product or service will help them become more influential than their competition. Maybe it’s mentioning that the prospect’s competition has approached your company, you wouldn’t want to see them be surpassed by their competition, right? Leading. Everybody wants a piece of that. Don’t over abuse it, but if you can tactfully and cleverly place it, use the threat of competition.
#7
Ask for Next Steps.
Don’t wait on your prospect to tell you what they think the next steps should be to getting the deal closed. A mouth that doesn’t ask, doesn’t get fed! Ask your prospect what he or she thinks should be the next steps. Could they say that they’re unsure, or need to think about it? Fair enough, but how about then you make suggestions of what the next steps should be that move you closer to closing? Remember here too, that your goal is to close the sale and that’s exactly what the next step should do. That’s why it’s so important to go into a meeting with these thoughts already brewing. Inexperienced sales professionals add so many steps before trying to close, the whole thing goes to shit. Each step that you take can move you further away from your goal. Make it simple to close. So the closing steps need to be easy easy brainless.
#8
Once your prospect said “yes”, you have to make the move immediately. Remember that time is your enemy. Once your prospect has agreed in principle to make this deal, move them as quickly as possible toward getting this thing into writing. During this time, any little thing can creep in. And this is the most critical moment. You don’t want them being sold to by somebody else, unforeseen events happening, like “cough, cough, I got sick”, getting second thoughts, etc. Any one of those things are very likely to happen if you don’t move as quickly as possible to a written agreement. That usually closes out the sales cycle.
This ties in with:
#9
Always present a proposal in writing. People are being sold to left and right, and that naturally develops skepticism which means that people don’t often believe what they hear, they believe what they see. So always have a written proposal available. As you have a writing pad and pen available at all times, so should a written proposal be attached to your hip. Anything presented in your sales pitch, should be written down to show your prospect that what you’re presenting IS what they’ll be getting. And that builds trust and confidence, which will only help you close that deal, plus, it cuts that time from verbal to written agreement.
#10
Let's face it, you’re not going to hear YES every time. What separates a great closer from anybody else is the ability to go ahead and ask again. Finding a way to circle back and reposition the negotiations. Trust me when I say that it’s Not rude to persist. Persistence leads to success and prosperity. Nobody that quit the first time ever got to the top. So in this situation, the #1 thing to do is to keep calm and not get frazzled. Don’t take this personally, this isn’t a personal blow. What you have to do is calmly get to the reason behind the decision. Almost everything can be worked out. A lot of times, NO comes from a place of “I don’t get it”. Know that, and know that maybe the pitch wasn’t presented as clearly as you thought. Quickly adapt and simply show the prospect what you see. What I recommend you do, is put together a list with all the reasons behind getting a potential NO, and come up with educated, not overly pushy or sales-y rebuttals.
Here are some ideas to get you started 2 of which I already mentioned:
“I’m not comfortable with this”
“I don’t get it”
“I’m not ready to commit to this” or
“The company is not ready to commit”
“Too risky for us”
Those are some suggestions. List all the possible NO’s and be prepared for them so you’re not stumbling during the meeting. Ask your customers: “Sure, I absolutely respect your decision. I’d love to know why.”
#11
Have a Good follow-up in place. Proper follow up is not only essential to getting new customers, but repeat customers as well. I always send a custom email the same day, a thank you hand written card the day after. Always follow up in more ways than one way, and always try to be different. Don’t send the same stale thank you messages. Don, thank you for your time, it was great making your acquaintance. Blah! Add some spice and flavor to your messages, bring about any potential personal information you may have learned about the prospect. If he likes to go fishing, send a funny picture of some really crazy fish you found on the internet and add a witty message to it. You get the idea, right? Always follow up and make it memorable.
This wraps another week of videos for you. Make sure you review ALL of the Solutions and Challenges posted this month, and remember to use your journal to track the progress. If you don’t know what the journal is, my very first video linked below will explains that, so you can catch up.
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I love you for watching and I’ll see you soon. Please be kind to yourself and all those around you.
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Are you caught up with this month's videos? Here they are: How To Let Go Of Guilt , How To Be The Most Perfect Partner and Food Control Tips.
Here's also that Intro Video I mentioned!
