If you’re looking for “to-do” sales tips, many easy-to-follow formulas support success in closing sales. Sales is as much an art form as it is a scientific process. Maintaining positive body language, confidence, listening to your prospect, and an upbeat attitude are great intuitive ways to close more sales. Maybe you don’t know what not to do while closing a sale. Well, that’s what we are here for today. Let’s go over four easy-to-avoid sales offenses to steer clear of, resulting in more closed sales and more money in your pocket.
- Closing Only Once and Too Quickly
One of the most common mistakes new sales professionals make is to close only once. The more opportunities you give your customers, the greater the chance they will buy from you. If you go for the close and the customer says no or gives an excuse, do you throw in the towel and say ok, never mind then? If this is where you give up, then you need to work on overcoming objections. Your objections should be in the presentation, so make sure you learn to overcome objections in the presentation.
This post is about overcoming objections in the close, which I hope you don’t have if you listen to your customer and handle their concerns in the presentation. But no one is perfect, and we all get them sometimes, so follow the listening, repeat, answer, and then go back to the close formula.
A major closing mistake is closing too fast or without first giving your customer a chance to offer up their objections for you to overcome and strengthen your position. You need to learn to manage the sales close. Locking in the sale too fast will only lead to regret for you. For example, the prospects decided to buy from you after feeling rushed; then after some time, they canceled the order because they didn’t understand what they were getting into. Taking a little extra time seals the whole deal; that way, your retention levels stay as high as your close rate.
Allow your customers to tell you what they want and when. Listen to them early on, and, as I said before, learn to manage the sales close. You need to be in control while making the customer feel heard and comfortable with you. It’s a balance, so get practice managing it.
- Being Too Aggressive
One of the best sales closing techniques is always to respect your customers and never be too pushy. Yes, the sale is a big deal for you, but it’s also important to remember that what you’re selling has value, and your customer might not be ready. Don’t devalue yourself or your product/ service by caving in or underpricing it just to get the sale. If you’re skilled, you can wait for an opportunity to get the close once your customer understands the value and is ready to buy. If this can’t be attained in the first meeting, use some impulse factors like the deal is for today, or that you have a lot of meetings these coming days and won’t be able to give the attention to go over it again, or that the neighbor has an appointment at the time they want, create some honest reasons as to why they should buy today. That way, when you need them, you can think them up quickly without being gimmicky.
I’m sure you have seen pushy salespeople get the deal, but they tend only to get one deal and have super low retention. Being a good salesperson is about listening, remembering what your prospect has said, addressing what’s been said, and then returning to what you want them to do. This is assertive, not aggressive. You need to be assertive and will learn to dart in and out of what the customer is saying back to what you need them to do. Once you have covered every concern they give and they close their mouth, get your pen, and close them; every time they stop giving objections, it’s time to go back to the close. Always be closing.
- Using Only Statements Instead of Questions
Your closes should always be in the form of questions, not statements. Statements sound like lectures – they’re not engaging, and you aren’t learning anything about what you should be offering your prospect. Always allow them to tell you. Ask questions about what they are doing now, their pain points, challenges, ideal situations, and how they think they can achieve their goals. Relevant questions about their industry, job position, and the market will assist your prospect in seeing you as a helpful expert offering solutions. Taking a consultative approach to sales opens up a whole lot more opportunities than the word vomit presentation followed by the hard close.
You are talking to your prospects to close them; that’s the purpose; you aren’t here to teach them. Clear? No teaching them, no lecturing them. You can do that once they sign the agreement; the first thing to do is to close them. They need to teach you about their business and their needs, and then you present based on what they have given you as their buying signs.
Once the deal is closed and the process starts, you can teach them all you want with additional products. Remember your energy, you need your energy, some people are energy drainers on purpose. I call people who ask too many questions and want to take time away from you but never buy jokers. Protect yourself from jokers by listening, giving information based on the question, and then go for the close.
If they ask another relevant question, then answer, ask questions to get more information so that you can answer preemptive questions, ask if that answers the question for them, and then go right back to the close. If you asked enough questions in the introduction and presentation, you shouldn’t get these questions in the close, so use your intuition here. Keep going for the close.
- Not Building a Sense of Urgency
A sense of urgency is a big part of closing techniques in sales, but it’s essential to create that sense without forcing it. Your time is important, and you need to make the prospect aware of that without being too obvious about it. One way you can create a sense of urgency is by offering them a deal or bundle that’s available this week or month, depending on your sales cycle. Devise an offer that’s valuable to them and can be purchased easily.
Asking questions in your closing sales statement also allows you to learn about the customer and what they’re interested in so that you can make the right offer or recommend another product later on when they may need something else. The worst thing any sales rep can do in an attempt to close a sale is to be focused only on the product or service he or she is selling.
Get to know your prospect and their needs, and you will find a lot more, resulting in closed sales. Prospects are more concerned about themselves and sometimes unsure of what issues they truly need to solve. That’s where you come in; you should ask probing questions about their concerns to offer solutions more than hard selling.
Asking powerful questions is not only instrumental in identifying your prospects’ pain points, but it also communicates to them that you genuinely care about their problems.
Be sure to include them in the process by asking for their opinions. Adding the phrase “in your opinion” softens the blow of sales rejection and shows your clients that you are interested in what they think and respect their feelings.
The “inoffensive close” is anchored in questions. This time, it is appropriate to ask leading questions. You have to drive the conversation home, hopefully resulting in a closed deal.
Be confident, be assertive, and know your worth. If you don’t, then work on getting guts. If you struggle with feeling shy, then work on breaking your shyness. If you don’t feel good enough to stand in front of a prospect and keep going for the close, then maybe you are suffering from imposter syndrome; overcome imposter syndrome for long-term success. You are worth it! You are valuable and have the right to earn this prospect’s signature and purchase order; whatever you are selling, you are worth their buying.
Avoid these sales offenses and close the deals you need to sustain a happy, healthy, abundant life. Develop a sales strategy, monitor and manage your development, and stick with what works. Sales is one of those lovely industries that’s not reliant on one-size-fits-all systems and processes; sometimes, your intuition knows best. It’s people doing business with people. Make sure you take the time to enjoy the process.
What easy-to-avoid sales offenses are you making when speaking with prospects? I have found that the more organized and sorted out I am, the more freely I can think and speak. If you get bogged down with a lot of information and want to be more organized without keeping a million notes, then make sure to use the right business tools for your needs. Our Business Directory provides all the software a salesperson needs to keep organized. That way, you can focus on getting more done without all the extras. Check out our Networking is Your Shortcut to Success course, where we teach you how to network the right way to create long-term beneficial business relationships. Subscribe for more business, sales, and investing posts. Have a lovely day!
