©2014 360 Business Consulting • 877.360.2492 • [email protected] • www.360biz.com Publish Date: March 2013 Keywords: Midsize Business, Small Business, Fortune 500, Large Business, Marketing, Sales Simple Closing Techniques Help to Hit the Mark on Sales Whether you are a small business, a midsize company or a Fortune 500 firm, closing is a process that requires goals for each contact you have with a prospect or customer. If you don’t know where you are in the closing process, neither will your prospect. Whether you close in one meeting or after a dozen contacts differs from product to product and prospect to prospect, but the process remains fairly similar. Close 1: The prospect tells you they have a need for your product Most sales appointments consist of the salesperson telling the prospect about what they want to sell them. While it’s important that your prospect knows the features and benefits of working with you, it is much more successful when the prospect tells you they need your product or service. How do you get to that moment? Ask them questions. This leads your prospect to not only tell you what they need, but also figure it out for themselves. Most people are so busy with the day-to-day operations of getting their jobs done, they don’t think of how an alternative could help. Good questions to get them thinking about this include: • How do you spend most of your day? • What is not getting done? • What is your biggest challenge? Once you have completed this step, you’re ready to move on. Skip a step, and you may find yourself stymied at the end, unable to close a sale. Close 2: The prospect says, "yes, I have a need for your product or service" In the first close, your prospect told you about where they need help. Your next close is specific to getting the prospect to tell you that they need your product or service. This is your opportunity to show them how you can help them in their specific situation. In this phase, your conversation should go something like this: “I thought about what you said and I think we have a product or service that can help you.” As you talk about what