For all companies, closing the sale is key.
Whether private, public or not-for profit, an organization’s revenue needs to come from a source – a client, donor or sponsor; someone to whom your firm is providing a product, service or benefit and that is willing to pay for it. On top of that, clients normally don’t just stumble across you and your services and decide to start shelling out money. Rather, the client has to be sold and closed to make revenue flow a reality. Even after closing the sale, the process is never done.
Every interaction with a customer should in some way be seen as an opportunity to close.
Not only is closing the sale important, it’s absolutely essential for any growing business. It’s great to have a huge sales funnel. It’s great to be meeting and proposing to prospects. It’s great to be giving them demos. But if these sales activities don’t lead to deals than there’s a problem.
For a number of our clients, we run the sales gambit from start to finish, working on closing the sale the entire time. From the moment we have identified a lead, qualified it, had the initial conversation and followed up, we are gunning for a close. Even post close, we look for other upsell opportunities where can we close additional revenue.
To improve your ability to close deals, here’s a few essential sales tips.
1. Ask For The Close
Don’t worry about being aggressive. It’s OK to tell your client you want their business.
2. Articulate Why You Are The Best
Be quantitative as much as possible. Remember, the four key sales drivers are the ability to save a customer money, drive more revenue, create an efficiency, or reduce a liability. Always ensure your messaging is in line with their needs and a key sales driver.
3. Show Some Emotion
People respond to emotion. I don’t mean get sappy, but be genuinely excited about the opportunity and genuine in your belief you (your product or service) can help them.
4. Keep On Closing
Even after the initial deal is done, continue to look for other opportunities with the client to win new business. This could be with another division, through a product or service extension, and so on.
5. Ask For Referrals
Nothing sells better than a warm referral; once you have rolled-out your solution and it’s going well, don’t be afraid to ask your client for referrals internally to other groups or divisions or to other peers they may have.
6. Understand The Process
Have a solid understanding of the sales process for your client, how their decisions get made, and the key players involved (both influencers and decision makers). This will ensure you are well armed to push for the close and manage any speed-bumps that could arise.
7. Understand & Set Timelines
Closing the sale can be a long process, so you want to continually reassess where your customer is at from a budget and decision making perspective and plan accordingly. Try to drive to the close as quickly as you can, but be respectful of their timelines.
I hope you find these few quick tips helpful when you are working on closing the sale and driving new revenues. For more insight into sales strategy and tactics, please feel free to sign up for our newsletter or follow us on Twitter.
