How to close a sale

How to close a sale

Winning a sale or How To Close a sale is the biggest challenge ever seller encounters in their sales process ,in this blog How To Close a sale is explained with a movie metaphor:

Did you watch the movie “Bigil” the movie uses a football game as a metaphor to communicate about winning?

During my teenage days, I remember watching a movie “Idhayam “ acted by yesteryear actor Murali. Do you also remember him, Yes, he will not express his love till the end or till his death?

Back to business, this is not about movie reviews; forget about the movies. I want you to remember only the two metaphors.

(1) The game of Football and
(2) The guy who did not express his Love till the end.

This week’s discussion is about How to close a sale / Winning a deal, an important topic, a pressing problem for all sellers and business owners.

Especially closing a sale is challenging in a complex B2B scenario and high-value B2C sales.

Let’s dive in, see how the new game of sales closure is played, come with me till the goal post …

How to close a sale is not a standalone activity done at the last part of the sale, I know a lot of non -practicing theoretical sales trainers are still talking about Closing Techniques. Let me put it clearly, it won’t work anymore. The older techniques of the hard sell, Manipulative, Always Be Closing, pressure techniques like asking the customers to sign in the dotted lines, or questions like when do you want the delivery are all older closing techniques, let me repeat, It won’t work anymore and even worse you look funnier in front of the customer.

Modern-day sellers are entirely different; they know customers buy for their reason, not because we sell. As a seller, our job is to help our customers what they want and position ourselves in the right places and guide them to make the right decisions. When the modern-day seller closes a deal, it looks effortless and not a pressure exerted, and still; the deal is done within the stipulated time.

So how this new game of closing is played, well closing happens as a cascaded sequence of micro closures. In every sales interaction, we ask for a micro–commitment from the buyer to move the sales forward.

Now use the metaphor the game of football, in every step you have a defender, you have to tackle him, every defender is the objections you face in the sales process.

In your buyer organization, each role has their interests, tackle them. Here tackling is about the value proposition we give to individual buyers or their roles, and when they see success for them in their jobs, they will play for you.

Still, the ball is far from the post; we are not sure whether our buyers will play for us, so how to test their commitments and take them near to the goalposts. Do the Micro Closures.

So, What are the Micro Closures?, allow me to give some examples which I am familiar with, My examples are, For my micro-commitment request, the customer responses are giving insights about their business, sharing datasheets, arranging a meeting with users, taking the time out sincerely to trail out the product and giving the feedback, arranging a meeting with important stakeholders like IT teams, Operations Head, etc., Jointly reviewing the proposal, arranging a meeting with CFO to discuss the budget challenges and arriving a commitment to executing, when these happen the closure is automatic, if our micro-commitments are not obliged then we cannot expect the deal to get closed, the problem is elsewhere not at the closure.

Please understand, still, the seller controls the game, these micro-commitments are proposed by the seller, and the buyer act on it and moves the sale forward, so we cannot wait like Murali, it is we sellers need to ask the micro-commitments.

If you have come this far, then could you do a small homework for me, draw your game plan, tell me what are the micro closures needed for your sales to happen, if you know this, then the game of sales is yours.

It’s easier said than done. Agreed. If You think you need some help here, allow me to be your coach. For a while let’s play the game of Sales.

Closing is one word ahead of losing; let me bring one word closing in your sales process. Please call me if you have a challenge. For more information on our sales training program please visit https://www.greatworks.biz/

Also, please do share this widely with your business friends and salespeople.

Sales fully Yours,

Ramesh. P

M: 9841052321