How to 'close more sales'

Something that clients ask me all the time as a natural byproduct of filling their pipelines with quality leads is "How do I close more sales". Closing is a term synonymous with sales and is often seen as the number one skill to win business. You've probably heard the phrase "Always Be Closing".

When you're building your company, yes, closing new sales is everything. But the reality is that closing is not some special event... It does not happen at one point in time, instead, it’s an ongoing part of your sales process. Your prospects are always asking in their mind, do I want to do business with this person or company? A series of these small yes's will eventually lead to a big yes.

So should you always be closing? Yes and no... You should not always be trying to close the sale, for example in the first meeting (unless your prospect is genuinely ready to move forward there and then). Pushing people too early to make a decision can come across as high-pressure or pushy and that will kill the relationship along with any chance of doing business together.

But you should always be closing the next step in your sales process and forging a relationship built on trust over time to maintain that forward momentum. With that being said, you must master the art of the ask.

Asking for what you want is actually quite uncomfortable when you're getting started out in sales conversations. It's easier to be passive and let the prospect choose the next step or just 'send over a proposal' and hope for the best.

You and your prospect might feel really confident at the end of that conversation that you'll do business together, but it's so common for sales opportunities to fizzle out simply because people didn't ask for the next step when the opportunity was there, instead, life got in the way for your prospect and they just didn't take action.

The problem is, that given the option, most prospects will choose to do nothing unless you can move them to take action. Not because they don't believe that you can help them, but because people naturally are hesitant to step outside of their comfort zones and when things get busy they put aside things they know they need to do.

Your job is to continuously plan and coordinate the next step in your sales process, gain micro-commitments and when both you and your prospect have all the information you need to work together there should be no hesitation in asking for the sale.

Now, asking for the sale is an interesting term and should not necessarily be taken literally. Some people think that asking for the sale is literally a case of saying "Would you like to move forward?", I've even read this in sales books by supposed experts on the topic. Maybe it's just me, but I have always found this approach to come across as a little needy and somehow pushy.

The approach that I've naturally taken for years and that I recommend my clients take is more assumptive than an "ask" and it tends to be much more natural and human. If after getting to know everything you need to in order to decide that moving forward is the right thing to do, then simply move things forward - the ask is replaced by just letting your prospect know what that first step of officially working together is, directly, confidently and assumptively. This could go something like this: "Great, so I think we've covered everything, I'm happy to move this forward now, so if you have all the information you need, the next step from here to get started with our partnership is ______, how are you looking next Friday to get this kicked off?".

After all, at this point, it should be clear you can solve their challenge. When you've earned the trust of your prospect over several touch-points and conversations, 'closing the sale' is more about reassuring than persuading, it's a natural and subtle transition from prospect to client.

On a final note, even when you close the sale, you have only just begun a business relationship - so never drop the ball on that level of service you provide throughout the sales process.

Perhaps a better phrase than "Always Be Closing", as cliche as it sounds, is "Always Be Caring".

When you genuinely have service at heart, when you genuinely care about your prospect and want to help them, then each gentle yet assumptive nudge in your sales process is an act of caring. When you adopt this mindset you will naturally become a 'closer' without all of the high pressure, pushy BS that comes along with the stereotype of a salesperson.?