In sales terminology, closing is a step when the prospect agrees or decides to buy the salesperson’s product. As the entire effort made by the sales rep culminates at this step, it is the most crucial aspect of the entiresales process. It is also the most difficult. Hubspot has found that the average close rate for all industries is 19%, which roughly means only one in every five sales pitches ends in a successful closing. Hence, it is important for all salespeople to master the art of ‘closing the sale ‘.
When closing a sale, it is important forsalespeopleto choose the right words that will convince the customers and take them into confidence. These closing words should be able to demonstrate that as a salesperson, you are providing the prospect with the most appropriate solution to their problem. As such, these should be a set of impactful phrases that have to be stated with confidence and making the prospects feel that they are making the right decision to purchase the offering.
The following are some of the steps that are necessary to master the sale’s closing
Sales closing starts with creating a profile of an ideal customer
The process of selling becomes much easier when you can quickly figure out your ideal customer. For this, you first need to build a target customer’s profile. In B2B sales, you can start by categorizing the target companies into big, medium, and small. Based on the type of your product, you can then zero down on the most important revenue stream. You then need to identify the right companies with that revenue stream and create an ideal target company profile. Starting with the fundamental step, you need to keep eliminating the noise and rule out prospects that aren’t a good fit for your offering.
Identify the needs of the target prospects
Once you know who your target customers are, you then need to perform extensive research to identify their needs. For this, you can use your CRM software. It can illustrate the best way to engage your prospects and help identify their needs through a robust feedback mechanism. It can show you when the prospect is ready to buy. This can be quite easy when the CRM is integrated with marketing automation and sales acceleration platform. For instance,IntelliSales CRMstreamlines the data collected during the pre-sale stages and can help sales reps strategically deploy their skills to close the sale.
Salespeople can also make use ofEmail Tracker. Gartner has found that Salespeople who track their emails close 40% more deals each month at a rate of 30% faster than their non-email tracking counterparts. Thedata procured by email trackerscan be used to figure out where a prospect sits in the sales pipeline, which can help sales reps in focusing on those who are most easy or quite ready to convert.
Assess the prospects decision-making process before proceeding to the sale closing
In most cases, the duration to close the deal depends mainly on the type of solation being sold. As such, a huge client will have a purchasing process in place that involves a set of decision-makers. When the process involves senior executives like VPs or SVPs, then the deal can take days, weeks, or even months to close.
On the other hand, if you get in touch with the primary decision-maker in a small company, you can close the deal in a matter of minutes. Hence, it is important to gauge the decision-making process early on in your qualification process. Having a clear picture of the estimated duration of the sales process can help sales reps stay motivated and make the right moves at the right time.
These steps can help sales professionals cultivate a relationship with prospects and with sale closing and turning them into clients. Also, the clients will appreciate your preparation and professionalism and surely want to do more business with you.
