Closing a sale has often been an art. No matter what business you own, closing the sale is probably one of the most vital aspects of the whole process. If you don’t close, you’ve wasted time in upselling your service and product, and have essentially made no money whatsoever. So how does one close the sale? Different businesses in various industries will have a different approach to closing the sale. Even within each industry there will be differing techniques and ideas for closing, with some swearing one way works. It depends on how you run your business too, and how aggressive you want your closing to be. However, there are universal tips for closing a sale, which might help you change your tactics and be more successful. At the very least they’ll give you something different to think about.
Appear Professional
If a customer doesn’t think you’re being serious, it’s going to impact your close. You need to be as professional as possible, and also appear professionally as possible. However this can be pretty tough as a small business, or even a startup. There are different ways that this can happen. One is by using virtual office suites to appear like you occupy a swanky address. Another is to use properly formed and worded voicemail systems and controls. You need a logo, and business cards with a well designed company letterhead. Be consistent with this and make sure the logo is the same everywhere, otherwise you might confuse potential customers. If you appear professional, you’ll lend the customer confidence in you. It’s that confidence which might push them to buy instead of turning them away. This rings true no matter which industry or business type you come from. It goes beyond dressing up in proper business attire, especially at the moment when most people are doing business virtually.
Respect Buyer Intent
Respecting the customer is huge. Especially if you’re closing larger deals infrequently, instead of smaller deals daily or more often. This is especially around researching the buyer, ensuring you know their customs, culture and beliefs and respecting them during the business transaction. Just by doing this you’ll win them over right away. What are the values they subscribe to, and why do they do so? How can you incorporate that into your sales pitch and ensure you leverage your research so that you can tilt the odds in your favour as much as you can. The issue here is having to decide which customers to do the research on if you have a lot of leads running at one time. Experience will help you with this over time, but in the main you need to try and pick off those which look most promising…in short, those that seem the keenerst and most likely to part with their money.
Use Clear Return Policy
Nothing lends confidence to someone buying a product like the knowledge that they’ll be able to return it for a full refund. It works. If you’re confident in your product or service, you know that they won’t want a refund anyway so all will be well. Offer a refund and make sure that you advertise it. So many businesses advertise a “money back guarantee” on their websites. It works no matter what you’re selling. If you can say with confidence that they can try it and if they don’t like it send it back, you’ll likely pull people who are on the fence off. It won’t make people buy who have negative feelings, but it will certainly help with the undecided. It might make some trouble for you in terms of paying for return postage. There are different ways to approach returns, but simply having a solid methodology in place doesn’t mean that it’s going to be used all of the time.
What Drew Them To You?
When they come to you, ask them why. What was it that drew them to your website and why? What are they looking for. What aspects of your marketing pulled them in? It’s important to know, because in asking it’ll seem like you want to know what advertising worked for you, but in reality you’re looking at what they value. You can focus on what they say. If they say they liked the price, or the colour, you can home in on that aspect and really sell it up which can probably help your sales and close chances. That being said, it also helps you understand what aspects of your advertising works.
