Close the sale with these tips

By Centerpoint Connect.  

The secret weapons to get your customer to say “yes.” 

Many people nowadays have short attention spans and can often miss or forget key details when on a call, which is why when wrapping up your sales pitch, revisiting the benefits that resonate with your customer is essential. It reinforces the mutual understanding of what’s important to them, given these short attention spans. This recap helps ensure the customer recalls the value they saw in your discussion, which can help nudge them toward accepting the action plan you've outlined since you’re giving the customer reasons to make a commitment 

Deciding on an action plan during a close depends upon where you are in the sales cycle with the customer or account, whether the customer is qualified to make the commitment we want, and how realistic the commitment is with respect to what has happened on the call. 

When to close 

You close when the customer gives you a buying signal. Buying signals can be subtle or overt.  

A gesture, facial expression, phrase or question can be cues that your customer is ready to be closed. 

How to close  

When you close, you summarize the benefits the customer accepted and formulate an action plan requiring customer commitment. 

Phrases that you can use to begin a benefit summary include: 

• “Let’s review what we’ve agreed upon…” 
• “We’ve agreed that…” 
• “Let’s summarize…” 
• “Let’s go over what we’ve talked about so far…” 
• “We’ve already talked about…” 
• “You’ve agreed…” 

The second step of a close is to formulate an action plan requiring customer commitment. Common actions you can ask the customer to commit to or take include: 

• Signing an agreement 
• Introducing you to the decision maker  
• Providing you with a stubborn leak work request as a test 
• Agreeing to a next meeting 
• Agreeing to an analysis 
• Providing a list of facilities for further review/development of a Preventive Maintenance Proposal 
• Scheduling an inspection 

When you close, you should assume the attitude that agreement has been reached.  Your language throughout a close should reflect this attitude, and nothing you say should express doubt, hesitation or uncertainty. 

Example preventive maintenance 

Customer: “It sounds interesting.” 

Salesperson: “We’ve agreed that our preventive maintenance program provides comprehensive reports, and data is available for downloading. I’ll put together an agreement for your portfolio and a schedule for inspections. I can have it ready by next Wednesday, or would Tuesday be better?” 

Example skylight: 

Customer: “This sounds good.” 

Salesperson: “We’ve agreed that we will install skylights safely and within your timeline. The skylights maximize daylight and are glare-free. Our distributor can ship these this week. We can be on-site next Wednesday to install.  Please note [sign] here that you agree to the timeframe, and we will get this scheduled today.” 

Original article source: Centerpoint Connect