The Best Strategy for Closing Deals Consistently

An excellent salesperson will sell a mediocre product better, faster and more profitably than a mediocre salesperson will sell an excellent product. So it’s not about the product but about you. Are you an excellent salesperson? Can you activate buying desire in all your prospects and close deals consistently? Excellent salespeople have the uncanny ability to activate a buying desire in the most difficult prospects and close deals consistently in any economy and at any time. The key determining factor of your success in sales isn’t how long you’ve been selling but the quality of your prospects and how quickly you can close deals by converting them to loyal clients. In this article, I will share a simple strategy that consists of 10 easy steps to close deals every time you make a sales pitch.

 

 

1. Effective follow-up

One of the biggest mistakes rookie salespeople make is lack of an effective follow-up plan. Don’t make this mistake and if you have already, rectify it immediately.

People do business with you not because you’re the best but because they remember you so you should invest in an effective follow-up system. Where do you store your prospect’s data? Are many pages of your diary scattered on your work desk? Have them stored in one place then review it daily to track your prospects.

The proof of good storage is ease of access when needed!

 

I know a very wealthy man who fired his Personal Assistant (PA) because he realized his calendar and reminders could do all she was doing. With an effective follow-up system in place, you can easily exceed your sales target without hiring more hands. Simply schedule those meetings on your calendar and create a reminder for them.

When you meet a prospect and he says he is currently busy, simply ask for a date for the next appointment or an appropriate time to call back. This becomes the basis for the follow-up so he doesn’t feel like you’re bugging him. Ensure you don’t leave it open-ended. Always ask for specific dates and times for the next visit. Give two options, a close date and a far date. Then the prospect can pick one. If you only ask for one date you’ve given him a second option which is to say, “that date is not convenient for me, let me get back to you.” This will likely be the last time you will see that prospect.

Do prospects get back to you after making such statements? No! It is rare. That will most likely mean the sale is lost because as you walk out that door, he or she immediately forgets you.

Often, I come across salespeople and relationship managers who manage a robust database but never follow up and close sales. For some reason, they get so busy fighting fire all day and are unable to do the things that really matter. It takes discipline to start the journey of being a successful salesperson but it also takes discipline to stop and do the things that really matter.

 

2. Know Your Value Statement

We have already established that prospects only pay for products they believe will give them value for their money so you must know and communicate the value of your product effectively. To communicate the value of your product, you have to focus on being clear. Clarity is where the power really is. The simpler your value statement, the better!

Your first statement in your sales pitch must grab your prospect’s attention and elicit the response “tell me more.” Your first statement should be a summary of the value you offer. When I meet clients, I usually say, “Hello, my name is Iyore Ogbuigwe and I train businesses on how to sell when no one wants to buy so they can make more money.” Most times I usually get the response, “Hmmm… tell me more” or “Really? How?”

You must find your value statement.

What is your value statement? Your value statement is the attention-grabbing statement.

To find your value statement, you must identify the end result of the value your product gives then walk backwards to create the value process. For example what’s the end result of people buying your furniture? Comfort. With comfort comes happiness. The end result is happiness. The ultimate result is usually an emotion of happiness, peace or tranquillity. Having identified the value, choose your niche. For example, your niche could be salaried individuals. In summary, your value statement will then be “I help salaried individuals achieve happiness through bespoke furniture.”

Take a few minutes right now and think carefully about the value statement for your business. Write it down and keep refining it with time. Still stuck? No worries, I love working with business owners to develop the perfect value statement and coaching them on easy ways to attract mouth-watering sales, so contact me and let’s get you that amazing value statement.

You also need to build your value proposition. You can do this by answering this question:

What are my similarities and my differences?

Your similarity is why you’re in that industry, while your difference is what sets you apart in your industry (your selling point).

Focus on listing five of your differences as your value proposition.

 

3. Know your goals

You have to put your goals into two categories:

OUTCOME GOALS: What you desire.

PERFORMANCE GOALS: The activities that will give you what you desire.

You can’t know your performance goals until you know your outcome goals. In order to achieve your outcome goals, you must take on the following as part of your performance goals: New information, new attitudes and new  actions

Recently, I got a call from one of my coaching clients. He wanted me to strategize with him to meet his N100 Million sales target for 2018.

I quickly responded, “get a sheet of paper and write the goal at the top, then divide the amount (N100 million) into categories. These categories will represent clients he should:

1. Up-sell to
2. Cross-sell to
3. Repeat the same purchase
4. Get referrals from
5. Get from the company’s marketing efforts in form of leads
6. Cold Call

I asked him to identify his performance goals based on these six categories. I urge you to do the same.

 

4. Have a Niche

Focus on a subset of the market then tailor your solutions to solve their problems. The moment you identify your market, your sales process will change remarkably because a part of the brain called the Reticular Activating System which is the part of the brain that helps you to focus, helps you put aside any information that is not really necessary so you can focus on what is important.

The day you identify your niche or target market, you will begin to see your clients everywhere. Some people say things like, “I don’t have a target market because everybody is my market,” but this isn’t true.

If everybody is your market then you don’t have a market because a market is a segmented group of people. You would always have competitors no matter what so the point is to identify your niche, identify the area where you want to focus on and begin to build on that. You can identify your market by creating an avatar of your ideal client. What does your ideal client look like? These few questions will help you create the perfect client avatar and walk you through reaching your client.

1. Where do your ideal clients live?
2. Are they single or married?
3. Are they male of female?
4. What is their age range?
5. What’s their average annual income?
6. What kind of cars do they drive, if any?
7. Do they have kids?
8. Do they travel often?
9. What kind of schools do they go to?

Ask all these questions to create an ideal picture of your client. Then you’ll start to see your client everywhere you go.

This process of creating your client avatar will help you to understand different dynamics of problems from your niche and solve them creatively. Once you can understand this dynamic set of problems that comes with your niche and you can solve them with your product and services, your name will begin to spread because you’ll start enjoying market gravity.

Market gravity occurs when you become visible in a busy market so much so that clients start looking for you.

 

5. Be Presentable and Approachable

A sales process is like a building block. Anytime you do something right, you remove the blocks and anytime you do something wrong, you add the block and the higher your block, the more difficult it is for you to sell. So try as much as you can to reduce the chances of your client building blocks for you getting to him or her. This is the reason you must endeavor to always be presentable, well dressed, well spoken and likable. For men, keep facials hairs well trimmed. For ladies, ensure your hair is neat and your hairstyle shouldn’t be a distraction but should be as simple as possible. People buy from people they like. How do you prove that you like the prospect? There is a principle that says that he that will show himself friendly will have friends. So the very first thing is to show the prospect that you really like him or her by doing the following:

1. a) Smile: You can never get it wrong with a smile. A few years ago, I was in the banking hall when a church member walked in looking stern. When she tried to walk past me in the banking hall, I looked up at her and smiled. Instantly, she smiled back. A smile is contagious. When you smile, the chemical reactions within you are different from what takes place when you are not smiling or angry. So as much as you can, smile before a prospect. It will help you and the prospect relax which will in turn create a more conducive environment for selling.
2. b) Be agreeable: Sometimes, prospects may be uninformed and say the wrong thing but don’t argue with them. Just agree. The whole idea of selling is not to win arguments but to win the money of the prospect.

It’s better to lose the argument than to win the money. I dare say that if you win the argument, you will lose the money of the prospect.

1. c) Be Like Them: People buy from those that are like them. How can you prove that you are like them? See the way they see. Have a view of their perspective. See from their perspective. There is a biblical saying that goes “Can two walk together except they agree?” You need to show that you agree by seeing and feeling from their perspective.

 

 

6. Value yourself

Think about this, a manufacturer aims at making his product flawless so it can appeal to the consumer and trump the competition.

Your manufacturer also made you flawless but the things you were told and ended up believing have made you define yourself in terms of strengths and weaknesses.

You were not manufactured with weaknesses. You were created with  a purpose. The fact that a phone can’t be used to cook food doesn’t make it weak because that’s not its function.

You are complete for your purpose!!!

So start to see yourself as an awesome ‘product’ irrespective of what you may have believed or what society has labeled you then you will be able to sell that product others said no one was buying because of certain flaws.

Consciousness is everything. The expression you give to the world will be based on the consciousness of who you are.

Your potential has no limits! Are you conscious of this?

If you’re a musician, you can produce songs for the next 1000 years without repeating any because you have no limits.

Your product should also command some level of value. How much value does it command? By the way, commands are meant to be obeyed. I hope your prospects are obeying it?

 

 

 

 

7. Access your prospect’s emotions

In conversing with prospects, you need their attention to access their emotions. There is no greater way to access their emotions than the words that could proceed from their lips during the conversation. From time to time when conversing, ask stop-gap questions like, “is this making sense so far?” This will help you keep their attention all through in the conversation.

Study how you buy, study the way your emotions change as you read sales copies or visit a store, then you can know how to use the same triggers on others when persuading them. Buying is more of an emotional decision than it is a logical one. So the sooner you can track your emotions when you buy, the sooner you have it as a tool to use when you sell.

We sell the way we buy.

 

 

8. Ask questions

Early in my career, I heard the story of a real estate sales man who walked into a particular wealthy neighbourhood and tried to convince a prospect to buy a property. After spending fifteen minutes talking to this prospect, the prospect said “sorry, I don’t live around here. I just came by to say hello to a friend.”

This sales man wasted fifteen minutes trying to sell to someone who wasn’t in his niche market. What should this sales man have done differently? He should have asked a critical question first. I know I would have said, “good day sir, my name is Iyore. I work for XYZ. Do you live here?” This first question would have qualified his prospect and saved him valuable time and energy.

In order to qualify your prospect and sell effectively, you have to ask two types of questions: open-ended questions and closed-ended questions.

The motive of asking open-ended questions is to start a conversation with your prospect. It gives your prospect the opportunity to air his views, needs and tell you in plain term how he wants to be served. This is an excellent way to engage your prospect and gain valuable information that will be useful in tailoring your sales pitch to suit his needs.

Closed-ended questions, on the other hand, are questions that require a simple yes or no answer. “You’re ready to pay now, right?” Yes. This is a closed-ended question.

The golden rule of closed-ended questions is to remember that you are looking for money or at the very least, an urgency of payment. How soon can he pay? Can he pay now? When you’ve spoken about your product or service and you’ve listened to what the prospect has to say about his or her situation and you are about to recommend, you may ask, “if I was to show you what would solve this situation right now, are you in a position to make an investment or a deposit or make payment of about 50,000 naira or 100,000 naira right now?”

If the prospect says, “yes, I’m in a position to do that,” you are ready to close. But if he says, “No, I really don’t have money with me right now. I am pretty low on cash,” then, you can decide if you want to still go on this journey or you want to move on to someone else.

Open-ended questions help you to start a discussion while closed-ended questions help you to close a discussion or a sale.

If you ask the right open-ended question but fail to ask the right closed-ended question at the right time, you will end up with a lot of prospects who like you and enjoy having conversations with you but never commit to paying for your products. If you also jump right to closed-ended questions without breaking the ice with engaging open-ended questions, you will end your sales process before it even begins and will likely have the door slammed in your face several times. As a salesperson, you have to master both.

 

9. Activate Buying Desire

Even if what you sell is what people need, you have to position your product in a way that your target market doesn’t just see it as a need but also as a desire. A classic example is the surging profit in the beer industry even in periods of economic recession. Why does this happen even when it is clear that beer is not a basic human need? It is pretty simple.

Human beings always have money for what is important to them. They always have money for what is their desire.

So how can you move your product from being a need to being a desire? Here are 3 tested and proven ways to activate a buying desire in your prospect:

 

1. Building Rapport: Rapport simply means finding common ground. It means finding a way to put you and your prospect on the same plane. It could be shared past experiences, values, beliefs or even similar interests like interest in a certain sport, inclination to same designer label etc. The crucial thing is to find a common ground and build a rapport from there.

Mirroring and Matching Method

This is simply positioning your body in the same way as your prospect thereby forming chemistry to build rapport. A few years ago, my wife and I were in the hospital for an antenatal appointment. I met an old friend there and was excited to see her. She introduced me to her husband and I started a conversation with him while she was chatting with my wife. While her husband and I were talking, we got enraptured in our conversation and there was a flow and rapport. Soon, I noticed her husband and I were standing the same way. My hands were folded and his were folded across his chest. I also noticed that his right leg was crossed over his left leg. Mine too was crossed over my left leg. We were like a direct mirror of each other!  I decided to remove my hands from my chest and placed them in my pockets instead. Guess what? He removed his hands from his chest and placed his hands in his pockets as well. The moment that happens, it means you have started influencing the person in front of you and you are likely to get whatever you ask for.

This also works if you are having a phone conversation. For instance, if I’m talking pretty fast on the phone and you want to build rapport with me, the best thing to do will be to speak like me by matching and mirroring my tone and pace. One important thing to note when using this method is timing. Please don’t be in a hurry to directly mirror your prospect so it doesn’t come off awkward. Wait for five to seven seconds before you imitate his or her posture. Once you have mastered the timing and execution, this method works like magic.

Building rapport with your prospects aids the sales process because the moment you can build rapport with someone, they will subconsciously believe that you understand them and they can trust you. Once they feel they can trust you, a buying desire has been activated.

 

1. Using The Principle of Scarcity or Discount: When making your sales pitch, tailor your product to offer a solution to your prospect’s nagging problem then subtly inform your prospect that the solution you are offering to his problem is not unlimited. This projection will make your prospect realize that your product is the best offer and the best time to purchase it is now. You can also double your chances of getting a yes by incorporating the power of a discount. As soon as they realize that you are willing to give them a discount, you’ve activated a buying desire. However, while offering a discount is a fantastic way to get prospects to commit, don’t start your pitch with it and avoid saying the word, “affordable” because the word is relative. What is affordable to A may not be affordable to B. So, as much as you can, focus on using your discount to close the sale. How? When you’ve confirmed that this person is ready to pay, use the discount to encourage the person to pay now before they change their mind.

 

How I used the Principle of Scarcity to Close Deals

I used this technique when I just started organizing seminars a couple of years ago and it worked tremendously. I started with small halls to create scarcity. When people called to make enquiries, we told them we had limited seats available because we actually had limited seats available. If I had a seminar in a hall with capacity to accommodate 1500 people, I will still create scarcity by dividing the hall into categories. There will be sections for VVIP, VIP and the general audience. Spaces for these sections often sold out quickly because our prospects knew we had limited spaces.

1. Using Social Proof: Take advantage of the human desire to fit in by providing social proof to your prospect. What is social proof? It is evidence that people are buying, using and are satisfied with your product. In a research involving a candid camera in a hospital, a lady joined a group of people waiting in the reception hall. Every two minutes, a buzzer went off and everyone stood up. The first, second and third time it went off, she didn’t stand up. By the fourth buzzer, however, she stood up. When another guy walked in and asked her why she stood up, she remarked that she didn’t know why she had to stand up but since everyone did, she decided to join in. This is how human beings are wired to also buy.

As soon as a considerable number of people seem interested in a product, more people join in and start buying.

A great way to use social proof is by showing your prospect testimonials of your satisfied clients. People may not respond to what you say about your product but will respond to what others say about you and your product. It is more productive to use your less-than-perfect testimonials than to have none at all so start documenting and using those glowing testimonials right away. Whether these testimonials are in written, audio or video form, the important thing is matching each testimonial to give comfort and confidence in your product to different prospects with different needs.

1. Using Exclusive Proof: This works only for high net worth individuals. If you are selling to high net worth individuals, you can tell them “this is not for everybody, this is premium/exclusive. Other people like you, in your category are using it,” and they will be glad to get your product.

 

10. Ask for a Sale

This may seem obvious but many sales persons skip this vital part of their sales process by saying the wrong things. After making your presentation or sales pitch, always ask a series of at least 6 closed ended YES questions e.g. “Mr X, I’m sure you agree this is practical enough?” “Yes” “I’m sure you agree it will be able to solve this problem?” “Yes” “I’m sure you agree I’ve covered the features extensively? “Yes.” Every YES answer predisposes the client to saying a final YES when you ask for the sale.

Go a step further by giving them a pen and showing them where to authorize or giving them the payment details or just simply asking, “Mr prospect, is price your only concern?” “Yes it is” “If I can handle the price are you in a position to pay now?” “Yes I am.” Hand over the pen and paper confidently and the client will definitely sign!