The conventional wisdom says it’s possible to build grand solutions for customers, to prospect effectively and qualify efficiently, but the pivotal point of your sales career will depend on your knowledge of effective closing techniques.
Sure, it’s vital to attract many leads, create promising opportunities, make compelling calls, and so on. But one of the most important points is to close your deals on the spot, efficiently and effectively.
We decided to gather a set of winning techniques on sealing as many deals as possible. Get back to them whenever you feel you need a tip or two to make the final push to closing. Most of the techniques have psychological underpinnings you need to know to use them effectively.
Here are the most common killer closing techniques we want to share with you, with phrasing examples, wherever appropriate.
Top 10 sales closing techniques for any sales scenario.
1. Visualization close
Always base your strategy and tactics on the way a human brain works. In this case, if you help the prospect visualize what they’re purchasing and sum it up in a concise way, it’s easy for them to understand what they buy, and why.
Make them literally see what you offer: more than 90% of people perceive the world and make decisions based on the visual input data. According to research, the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than words. So, it’s your quickest chance to get to your potential clients’ brains and hearts.
2. Puppy dog close
It’s one of the simplest, yet actionable and effective sales closing techniques. To enact it, you need to allow your prospects to test drive your product, whatever it might be.
The actual feeling of possessing or trying the thing they like makes them happy and satisfied. As a result – they want to buy it from you.
3. Assumptive close
Assuming that your sale will close is a powerful and highly effective technique. The only thing you have to do is to be as uber-confident as possible in your product and yourself.
This technique draws on the power of positive thinking, which is so popular nowadays: you are to center on your dream come true.
This technique presupposes using a phrase that assumes the close is a done deal. You can create a set of your own assertive statements to resort to them whenever necessary.
E.g., “What day do you want to receive your order?”
4. Question close
A good idea is to ask a series of probing questions during the negotiations, to eliminate all objections to buy, or try to close the sale with a question.
The sales rep can address objections and gain a commitment. Asking questions is a win-win situation. Questions urge people to act and help you discover whether your product appeals to your customers.
E.g., “Is there anything preventing you from agreeing to this deal today?”
5. Analytics close
Historians say Benjamin Franklin made decisions in the following way: he created a list with two columns (pros and cons) and based his choice on the longer one.
If you have clients who are analytical personalities by their nature, you’ll benefit from compiling lists of your product’s advantages (and disadvantages too) in advance; then offer your customers the chance to make their own decision.
6. Now or never close
This is a classic. To entice into buying those tough customers of yours who are still hesitating, offer them a special benefit (discount, gift, bonus, attractive quotes etc.).
The efficacy of this technique is based on the following psychological mechanism: people are often afraid to commit, even if they want what you offer them, no matter what it is.
So, simplify the process of taking a decision for them (to your advantage). E.g., “If you sign up today, I can offer 25% discount.”
7. Urgency close
It’s recommended to create a sense of urgency that places pressure on the prospect and forces them to make a purchasing decision. But you are to be well-versed in timing and pacing, not to commit serious mistakes as for the timeframes your clients can operate within.
E.g., “This is a limited time offer that is valid till the end of the day.”
8. Empathy close
Emotions possess immense power. To reel your customers in, you’re more than welcome to use emotions and empathy, leaving reason in the backseat. It’s recommended to relate your product’s benefits and the aspects of customers’ problems. Showing them that you care about their pain will put you on the right track.
Put yourself in their shoes and genuinely say how you would feel and what you would like to do. Imagine you’re a doctor: instead of selling a product, focus on prescribing a solution to a problem, a pill to pain, as it were.
9. Hard close
To overcome the customer’s inertia and to pull the trigger quicker, you can resort to the hard close. This technique requires tons of courage and confidence from you, and should only be used when you have nothing to lose.
This face-to-face overt selling when you directly push someone into buying is a real tough challenge, especially for a newbie, but cheek brings success.
E.g. “Could you please sign the agreement?”
10. Take away close
There’s one more handy psychological method to close sales effectively. The process is the following: to introduce enticing features, then offer to reject them for the sake of something else, perhaps more interesting.
The result entails that the customers don’t want let fall what they almost had; they don’t want to lose anything on their wish list and move forward to purchase the product. The phenomenon is accompanied by one more psychological impact.
People love to follow the trends. So, to grab the attention of potential customers, you only have to tell them that your brand is popular. Then, simply suggest replacing or rejecting it.
In fact, there are other types of sales closing techniques and different methods to close deals depending on your unique circumstances (e.g. the rebound close, the alternative close, and so on).
Related articles:
Some psychological pieces of advice to close sales.
Want to push your customers to make a purchase right away? Here are several handy tips and tricks based on the way consumer psychology works:
- Be equipped with multiple sales closing techniques in advance
- Be persistent (the average sale takes 3-5 closing attempts before the deal is done; most sales reps give up after 1-2 closing attempts)
- Be customer-oriented (try to be in their shoes and feel their worries and woes)
- Be proactive (think about possible objections and alternatives)
Top technology that helps you close sales.
There are many software solutions to help you close seal deals like a pro, and even more. If you are interested, you are always welcome to dig deeper into the question of sales automation software.
Numerous technical solutions can help you improve performance and increase the efficiency of your sales. They can help you make your sales more predictable, reach out at the right time, capture all your business-related data to Salesforce, and much more. One of them is Revenue Grid.
How Revenue Grid helps to get more from closing sales techniques
You’re probably curious about how to make these five closing strategies even more effective. The easiest way is to introduce a specific sales acceleration tool like Revenue Grid. In this case, you’ll be equipped with software automating your sales process in several directions and bringing you closer to winning deals.
How can Revenue Grid help your team to close a sale faster?
- Provide a clear picture of what your reps are up to, what tactics they are using, and how they communicate with customers – with Revenue Grid you can get complete pipeline visibility and know exactly where your reps are standing on each of the deals. As a result, you can catch deals once they go south and access key sales metrics for each deal, moving them in the right direction.
- Automate sales plays and guide reps through the funnel without your help by making recommendations based on context and pre-defined rules that align with the sales process using AI insights
- Supplement in-person coaching with personalized, automated sequences that surface actionable insights and help reps apply the right action at the right time, based on your sales process.
Revenue Grid software surfaces the best action for every deal, alerts you and your reps when deals are at risk, and helps you understand what went wrong. As a result, you’ll maximize the effectiveness of any of the closing sales techniques we’ve described.
Maximize sales closing techniques with Revenue Grid
A few final thoughts.
Once you’ve walked your prospect all the way along the path of a deal, there’s the final stage – sales closing.
Above, we’ve shared some insights on smart techniques to be used in working with customers, and we wish you stunning success in sales closing!