If you’ve reached the point where you’re about to close the sale, you’ve actually done fantastically well – you’ve marketed your business to get people interested in what you do; got the confidence to contact and follow-up with them; and you’ve met them and given them a quote. Now all that’s left to do is complete the deal right?
But what if you find that closing the sale is where you’re getting stuck – what can you do?
Well, firstly it’s a good idea to understand the reasons that people don’t buy:
• The person doesn’t understand what your product or service will do for them.
• You’re talking to the wrong people.
• The person hasn’t got enough information from you to be able to make a decision.
• The person genuinely can’t buy now – the sale cannot be made.
Though you can’t do much about the last reason, since the other ones are under your control, you can do something about them. So, let’s look at what you could do.
1) Are you talking to the right person?
It’s really tempting to sell your products or services to anyone who’ll listen, but it makes much more sense to sell to people or businesses who actually WANT what you do.
This comes back to who exactly are your customers – and no, the answer is not “everyone”. But, if you’re trying to sell to “everyone” you’ll have to keep changing your message as they’ll all have different needs and wants.
The first step is to work out exactly who your customers are and what they want and need. That’s a completely different topic which we’ll cover in another article, but for quick help and advice, feel free to contact us at www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk and we’ll work with you to identify who your customers are and what they want.
2) Listen to the customer IT’S A FACT – THE CUSTOMER DOESN’T CARE ABOUT YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE.
They care about what it will do for them.
Think about the last thing you bought for fun and ask yourself why you bought it. You might think it was because of the price or because you liked it. But, if you go deeper than this, was it because you WANTED it?
This means that you need to find out why the customer WANTS your product or service and the only way to do this is by listening to them and asking questions.
The more you understand the needs and wants of your customer, the more you can relate your product or service to their requirements.
3) How can you demonstrate your product or service?
Customers often like to see or hear about your product or service in action – it makes it come alive to them and helps them to understand how it might work for them.
This is easy to do with some products or services i.e. a graphic designer could show their portfolio and a property developer could put furniture in the house to show how it might look when lived in.
Other items are not so easy, so you need to think imaginatively to get some ideas:
• Use storytelling – tell stories of the customers you’ve worked with, what you did and what the outcomes were.
• Samples of work – have one or two examples of the work you’ve done available for the customer to view.
• Testimonials – not just about the quality of your work, but about the results you achieved for your clients.
• Credibility – tell your customers why you’re an expert in your field – what courses have you run, what articles have you written, voluntary organisations you’ve worked for, awards you’ve won.
• References – have three or four people that your client can contact so they can hear about you from someone else (Make sure you’ve got the permission of the referee first though).
4) Ask for the business One of the biggest reasons that business owners don’t close the sale is because they haven’t asked for the business. This doesn’t have to be complicated. There are some ways you can do this below.
SAMPLE CLOSING QUESTIONS • Are you ready to get started?
• Would you like to schedule an appointment?
• Shall I draw up a contract?
• What do you want to do next?
• Would you like to sign up?
• Do we have a deal?
• Is my proposal acceptable?
• Would you like to go ahead?
Make sure you ask for the business even if you need to go away and prepare a quote or proposal.
Once you ask for the business though, the golden rule is:
SHUT UP UNTIL THE CUSTOMER SPEAKS This can be hard to do, but it puts pressure onto the customer to make a decision.
At this point, you may find that the customer gives you an objection, such as I’m not sure I can afford it; I need to talk to my wife; I’m not sure it’s the right time and so on.
Think about all the possible objections someone could give to your business and what solutions you could give to these problems, so you’re prepared when the questions arise.
5) Follow-up and review Sometimes it’s not possible to close the sale on the day you meet or talk with the customer, but if you don’t follow-up with them, you definitely will lose the sale.
Make an appointment in your diary for the following week and make sure you contact the customer then. Keep following-up until the customer either buys or tells you they’re not interested.
There is of course a fine line between following-up and hassling the customer, so my golden rule is three – if I contact the customer three times and they still haven’t bought, I will relegate them to the ‘contact after three months pile’ and then to the ‘contact after six months pile’.
The final tip on sales is to review what happened, how it went and what you’ll do differently next time. If you keep reviewing your sales in this way, you’ll start creating your own best practice of what works and what doesn’t.
Good luck.
Article written by Exceptional Thinking. Tel: 0845 644 9371. Email: info@exceptionalthinking.co.uk
To learn more about this author, visit Helen Dowling's Website.
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