How well are you closing the sale?

Are you winning?

Selling and closing a sale are not topics that most organisations selling professional services like to dwell on.

When I talk to our customers about how they close sales most people do, these days, ask for the business, which is a step in the right direction.

Quite a few are also looking for signs that the customer is ready to buy, and are ready to act when they see them.

What stumps a lot of professionals is what to do when a prospect requests more time to make a decision.

Are you in this position?  If you are, here’s a good way to deal with the situation.

Ending the sales conversation positively

Most consultants and other professionals selling their services know that the best time to make a sale is during a sales meeting.  As a result we all do our best to get prospects to make a commitment to take action during that meeting.  It’s part of our sales strategy to do this.

However, there will be times when your prospective client is just not ready to commit to work with you there and then.

When this happens you’re faced with a choice.  You can let the person walk away having made a vague commitment to get in touch.  If you do that you run the risk of never hearing from the prospect again.

• Life gets in the way of the decision.
• Something else comes up.
• There are pressing problems to deal with.

As a result you get forgotten and all your hard work is lost.

Alternatively you can find a way to set a limit to the time your prospect takes to think about your proposal, or to discuss it with colleagues.

Ask your potential customer just how long he or she needs.  When will he or she be ready to let you know the decision?  Will it be three days, three weeks, three months?

Most people, when faced with a direct question like this, say they need a few days, a week at most.

Get it in the diary

Once your prospective customer has nominated a time by which that decision will be made you have made progress.

Now’s the time to schedule a five-minute telephone call with your prospect.  Get the call set up for the day by which the decision will be made.

Make sure your prospect makes the commitment to call you at this time.

Put an update call or a checking progress call in both your diaries before you end your meeting.  Make a commitment to be ready to take the call and get a commitment from your prospect that he or she will call you.

Following up is good business

Most professionals know that following up on sales meetings is good business.

Yet, chasing a prospective client after a meeting where no decision has been reached is uncomfortable for every one.  It’s not something you like to do.

After all, you’re not a professional sales person and you probably don’t like the idea of pestering people. If you call at a time that isn’t right for your prospective customers, then you know they could feel annoyed or stressed. They could feel pressured.  You don’t want to put them in that situation.

If you work as I’m suggesting then you won’t be doing this.

You won’t be making the call at all.

Your prospective customer will be calling you.  He or she has chosen the date and the time.  That means your prospect has time to prepare for the call.  There’s a date and a time in the diary and you’re both expecting to speak at a specified time.

When the call comes you know you are both going to be focused on the subject: your proposal.

What if no one calls?

This does happen.

If it does, you have the opportunity to call or to email and ask what happened.  What went wrong?

Even if you have to leave a message, your prospect will almost always feel obliged to get back to you.  After all it’s not you who failed to do something you had committed to do.

You’ll close sales more often, if you set limits to the amount of time you give prospects to mull things over and if you schedule a follow-up discussion before you end your sales meeting.

Give it a try.

How do you close sales?

So how do you make sure you don’t lose out on sales?
Do you use the above approach?
How would you feel about using this approach?

Let me know in the comments section below.

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