How can you close more clients?

The art of closing is something that every business owner should master. Being an effective closer will help you convert more potential clients into actual paying clients. This can have a huge impact on your business but also on you as an individual. Now, closing isn’t about the hard sell or backing your prospect into a corner, both of which we advise against. Rather, closing is more about gradually leading your potential client into making a favourable buying decision.

In today's blog we want to demonstrate how you can close more clients using simple to implement techniques.

Although there are a number of different closing tactics, each approach will vary depending on the product/service you are selling, your experience and the type of person you are trying to close.

For example, if you are selling something that has a relatively short expiration date, you may wish to go for an aggressive close whereas if you are faced with a prospect who is very analytical, you may go for a softer close. Judging the situation, which comes with experience, will help you increase your conversion rates.

The four ways you can close more clients include:

1. Option Close
This method focuses on asking your prospect directly about how they are looking to proceed but providing two options for the sale. It is always a good idea to provide a maximum of two options as anything more than that will lead to a drop in your conversion rates.

For example, if you were selling hardware to a business, once you have gone through your proposal, you could end by saying something like, ‘Would you like me to arrange delivery for Monday or Thursday?’.

This is now assuming the business owner wants to proceed but still gives him/her an option to select a delivery date.

2. Assumption Close
This technique relies on you using terminology and language that implies the deal has already been agreed. When used correctly, the assumption close allows you to take control of the sales interaction and conclude the discussion quickly.

For instance, if you were selling software solutions to a client, at the end of the meeting you could say, ‘I will pop by on Friday and deploy our solution’.

Similar to the Option Close above, this method is assuming that your potential client is ready to proceed with you. When using this method, it is always good to be mindful of the business owners body language, personality and language. Some business owners will go along with the method whereas others may interject at this point. So always analyse the situation before you use this tactic.

3. Suggestion Close
This method is a far less aggressive approach than both the Option and Assumption Close. With this technique, you are using your position of authority to make a recommendation to your potential client about the best way forward.

To get maximum impact out of this approach, you need to build value within your sales interactions and meeting so that the business owner has confidence in your opinion. To illustrate this method, you could close with, ‘Based on your objectives, I would recommend that we start by managing your social media accounts to drive customer engagement’.

The Suggestion Close tends to work really well when you have good rapport with your potential client and you are not trying to meet any time pressures or deadlines.

4. Urgency Close
The final closing technique centres around creating a sense of pressure around the buying decision due to limited time offer or low stock. This method is principally used to capture a buying decision there and then by focusing on the cost of not acting today.

For example, if you were selling a product you could say to the decision maker, ‘I will be closing this offer tomorrow. If you buy today you guarantee our introductory price’.

With this method, you should only use it sparingly to retain its impact. If every time you visited this particular client you only used this method, very quickly it would lose its appeal and with it, you’d likely lose the sale.

Summary
As we have discussed today, there are a variety of ways that you can close more clients. However, it depends on the language you use, what you are selling and who you are selling to, with regard to the method you should adopt. Closing is an art rather than a science. It requires you to read the situation and go for the option that will give you the best possible chance of success.

Here at iOB Business, when you launch a Digital Agency with us, we cover closing techniques during the two days of initial training. We also have over 25 online sales training videos within our Learn Centre to help our Partners grow their businesses.

To find out more, hit the ‘Talk to Us’ button up top to schedule a call.

Until next time, take care.