How To Close Sales & Make More Money For Your Service Based Business

Raise your hand if you want to start making more sales for your business?

I hope most of you raised your hand... or at least imagined doing it. :P

This article is going to be a lengthy one, jam packed full of value on how you as a business owner or salesperson can make more sales and make more money for your business. You might want to prepare some coffee and get comfy, because you’re going to digest a lot of content.

Sales is the life blood of a business. It’s incredibly important to a business's survival, but also its ambitions for growth and expansion. Consistent sales provides confidence to any business size. It helps you to pay for the costs of revenue generated such as staff, equipment, rent, repay loans & investors etc. It also supports the concept of growing a company with ambitions of larger market share within the industry it serves. 

But here is the problem. There is a lot of service based businesses out there that are not so good at sales. They don’t know how the sales process works and are not good at closing deals. So in this guide I wanted to share with you some techniques and tips to help you close more deals for your business. 

The most important part of the sale is the close. Unfortunately this is where many people get stuck. The sales process isn't just about prospecting, client outreach, research, serve, negotiate or present. Those are all just steps in the sales process that lead toward the outcome they want... which is the close!

So how do you close more sales? What do the top sales people do to close more deals?

The salespeople who close more deals than the average sales person may do so out of hard work, ambition and smarter approaches. All those elements definitely contribute. But attitude, confidence and enthusiasm also play considerable roles in the success of top sales people in any industry they serve!

The Top Closers Focus on The Following

Focus is key to success. Do you have a goal in mind? You need to focus solely on that goal until you’ve achieved it. Here are a few important things that top sales people focus on to close more sales.

They Listen First 

In order to figure out the prospects needs, the salesperson must listen carefully to what the prospects wants and needs are. What problem are they trying to solve? Doing this offers feedback to the salesperson and gives them a better understanding of the prospect and their desires, so they can best serve them a solution to their problem or desire.

They Focus on The Prospects Needs

It’s hard to sell ice to an eskimo right? It’s not like they “Need” ice with so much supply around them. Top sales people know that the difference between convincing prospects to buy and convincing them to buy now can come down to a strong understanding of the buyer’s needs. 

Top sales people are patient! 

You need to be patient in sales and the top closers realize this. They consider the longer buying cycle as an opportunity to educate prospects about their products and services. They recognize delivering value from the first point of contact to whatever time frame it takes to close can turn a customer into a long term customer for years to come. 

They Stay Positive

The top sales people always keep positive and eliminate the negative when they’re closing. No matter what the outcome, it’s vital to remain positive in any given situation. The top closers of this world work hard to keep out negative influences, by remaining upbeat, even when dealing with pessimistic prospects and a deal that falls through at the last minute. Stay positive and move forward!

They Always Add Value

Top closers speak in terms of value for the prospect when they are communicating. Top closers help prospects see not only the ROI they’re likely to receive, but how much the absence of their product or service is costing their potential client each day. 

Top Sales People Also Form Good Habits With Themselves 

This is also very important when looking to close more clients and customers. Let’s talk about some of the more common habits below - 

They Are Organized

Top salespeople have an organized sales process. They are doing two things within their sales process. 

1. Finding new prospects to close
2. Engaging with existing customers

When implementing points one and two, their methods of communication can be channels such as - social media, email, phone calls, Facebook/LinkedIn messaging and of course the traditional call in. Whilst engaging with existing clients, they may engage to see if the product or service that was sold to them is working out as what was agreed to them, or they may simply offer information that can add value in some way to the customers business. 

Always Be Learning

Top closers are in consistent demand for news and industry trends. They know and understand industry hot buttons are constantly changing, and prospects need salespeople who keep up with trends. Strong closers stay ahead by reading blogs, newsfeeds, social media, books and publications related to their industry and their customers’ industries. They listen to relevant podcasts. They attend conferences and seminars – not just to network, but to learn more about their profession so they can become the best sales professional.

They Manage Expectations 

Top sales people form a habit before, during and after closing, to manage expectations carefully with new customers to go over exactly what the customer gets with the transaction. They confirm everything with the buyer to ensure expectations meet reality. This also helps to continue establishing trust & credibility. 

They Listen With Care

Great closer’s ask questions first to uncover prospects pain points, needs, wishes, desires and how their buying process works. They take notes during the opening stages of a discovery call to ensure nothing is missed. Asking these questions helps to figure out whether the prospect they are dealing with has the intent to purchase, the need to purchase, the budget to purchase and the authority to purchase. Listening and asking these types of questions is a very important habit to acquire if you want to be a top salesperson.

They Build Strong Relationships

You’ve heard the saying.. “People buy from those they know, like and trust” right? Top sales people understand this and they form a habit of building relationships with qualified prospects and customers. Even if a qualified prospect does not buy now, they may very well buy your solution in the future, provided that you stay top of mind. 

You can do this by keeping in regular contact via social media, phone, email, letters, etc. Offer industry news and educational content that continue to add value and build the bond between you the salesperson and the prospect or customer. 

Make The Connection to Get The Close

Making as many connections to qualified prospects is very important when your aim is to close more deals. This is exactly what top sales people do, which helps them close more sales!

But it’s not just about making a connection to a qualified prospect. It goes deeper than that. It’s about making more in depth connections. Great sales people take strides to connect with prospects and customers at a granular level, finding what’s unique about each person and his or her needs. At the same time, they share enough about themselves to make prospects feel so comfortable they open up and share their stories, struggles and needs. 

“So how do you make these meaningful connections?” 

Focus on The Problems & Pain Points

Valued relationships are created with a common understanding and concern on what the prospect is currently facing. Offer advice, be helpful and invite prospects to call you to ask for more information about something that has nothing to do with the sale. Don’t focus so much about the solution you have to their problems. Show more empathy toward the pain they are experiencing currently.

Less Facts More Focus on The Connection 

In this day and age of the world wide web, it’s easy for prospects to do their own fact-checking and research online before they ever connect with salespeople. They know that there are numerous organizations that are offering the same deal. That’s why the best closers don’t inundate customers with information upfront. Instead, they talk about what people want to talk about, You guessed it! THEMSELVES!. They ask questions about their work, the struggles and triumphs they are currently experiencing, making the connection with their prospect a more granular relationship.

Be a Valued Partner & Consultant 

Because it’s important to shut up and just listen to your prospects needs and problems they are experiencing, salespeople take up the role of business consultant and partner in the prospect’s success. To achieve this position of consultant, salespeople need to create question-laden presentations in their discovery call. This allows them to learn more about how their prospects need help. Then they can demonstrate a clear understanding of the problems and the ideal solution to help resolve each one.

Stay Connected To Get The Close

Closing a sale can be tedious! It can take longer than anticipated with complications appearing along the way to the close. That’s why it’s important to stay connected with your prospects in order to complete the sale.

It’s important you remain connected throughout the sales process. Whether that process is short or long... keep the connection going so that when the closing situation takes place, it’s as amicable as friends enjoying beers.

Here’s a few tips on how to remain connected. 

Stay Connected Through Social Media

One of the easiest ways to keep the connection between you and prospect (& customer!), is to use social media. Whether that’s through the likes of Facebook or LinkedIn, you can follow your prospects and customers using social media. Be sure to drop a like and comment on their posts. They get notified when you connect with their posts. This keeps you engaged with them and “top of mind” so to speak. 

Be Likable & Earn Their Trust

When staying connected, it’s important you come across as likable. This is one of the stepping stones to earn trust, respect and rapport with your prospects. These are all great ingredients to have when closing more sales. Find common interests and use them to continue to connect. Remember that people buy from people they like and are similar to them in various ways.

Send Value When Appropriate

Have you come across a recent article? Or perhaps some research or case study that you came across where you found value from it, but believe that your prospects would get value from it too? Then send them the link to this content. Continue to add value when it’s appropriate to do so. 

Did you know...more than 90% of customers said they choose a product or service because the company or salesperson provided relevant content throughout the sales journey. That’s a high conversion booster that you can’t ignore! Like I mentioned above in one of the habits you should get into, that continual learning is great because you get to pick up information that will help you, but also your prospects and customers. Thus helping improve conversion in the sales process. 

Stay Connected After The Sale

Congratulations! You’ve made a sale! The game ain’t over yet. Top sales people stay connected before, during and now AFTER the sale has happened. There are a few reasons why this is also important.

• Implementing Customer Service after care sales helps the customer to “settle in” so to speak. They may need to be onboarded for your service. This is a great time to offer support to them and get adjusted to their new experience with you. Making a good job of after care sales, strengthens the positive bond you have with your client/customer. Apart from delivering the results as part of this transaction, good after care sales leads to more sales transactions down the line. This fits in well with nurturing the lifetime value of your customer and helping you to become more profitable.
• Referrals become more apparent when you deliver good after care sales. After sometime, when your product or service is delivering positive results and your customer is receiving a great experience, it might be a good time to ask for a referral. 

“Hey Jim, we’re delighted to see you expressing a positive experience with us as a service provider for X. Is there anyone in your network we should be talking to that could benefit from this service?”. 

You can even offer them a referral fee if they refer you to someone and you sign them up as a customer. That always helps to motivate a referral from them. For example… business owners know other business owners, so it’s definitely worth asking.

Talking Money During The Close

When it comes to talking about the cost of a product or service in the sales process, for many salespeople, this is considered their bottleneck. It’s not easy to talk about finances with a prospect. Talking about costs involved from your clients has the potential to stop or delay a closing or create a contentious one. 

The good news is that it’s possible to overcome this obstacle with some tactics that the best closer’s use to handle the financials. Let’s talk about these below…

Three Principles When Talking Money - 

1. Customers need to understand and have confidence in the method salespeople use to get to any numbers they use. Take the time to explain the basis of your numbers and regularly ask them for feedback. When you’re talking for more than 60 seconds or so, be sure to engage them in the conversation by asking them things like “Does that make sense?” “Do you see how that works and can impact your business?” when talking about the financials involved in order to get them results. Every little “yes” and or “nod” is a positive sign that the customer understands your process and gains confidence in you going forward.
2. Establishing the cost of the problem. If you can’t establish the cost of the clients problem, they don’t have a problem! Potential clients won’t close on a non-problem. So the most important financial conversation salespeople must have is connecting the agreed-upon problem to the fact that it’s costing the potential client a lot of money. 

In the early stages of the discovery meeting, you can ask your prospects about their problems and challenges. Follow this up with questions like "Why is it important that you get this problem solved now?", "How much is this problem costing you financially?" or "What would it mean to the business if we could solve this problem today?" This will help you determine pain points, financial costs of the problem and conveying vision on how the future could be like without this problem.

1. The numbers you establish with your customers don’t have to be exact figures, but they do have to be credible. Costs and returns on investments have many variables and make it difficult for a salesperson to put an exact number on financial costs. Customers will usually accept estimates, but if you hand them anything that’s too good to be true, you’ll lose credibility you need to close the sale. Try to be conservative in your projections when it comes to return on investment. In the best case scenario, you want to demonstrate to your client that their investment with you has the potential to produce ten times more value over time.

As mentioned previously, conversations about money can be a challenge for many salespeople. This is especially true when dealing with higher ticket sales. It’s the most awkward conversation to have in the sales process. 

However, in order to close a sale, money is a necessary conversation to have. You need to find a budget/investment range that your potential customer is willing to invest in to solve their challenges. There is no escaping it! So below are some tips on how to make it comfortable and concise:

1. Connect Pricing to Value. Pricing is all about connecting it to value. You offer value from a product or service in exchange for a fair price. That price should aim to offer tens times more in value. Ie. Sell a product for $100 and it should deliver 10 times more value. A prospect is always thinking one thing when talking to salespeople. “Is this person creating value for me?” If you’re not doing this with your prospects, then you’re done!
2. Be Sure to Set the Tone. Don’t avoid or try to hide pricing from customers. Pricing is very important to potential customers as it allows them to make decisions that are best for them. Explain your pricing and value early, so there are no surprises at closing. 

You can usually mention price range in your discovery meeting. After collecting information in the discovery meeting about problems that need solving, why they need solving etc. You can offer a price range to your potential client that can give them an understanding about the cost involved to solve their problem or fulfill their desire. 

ie. "Hey Jim, so after collecting this information today about your need to solve this problem, usually a solution like this costs anywhere between $1000 - $1500 per month to put right. Is that a price range you could see investing to solve your challenge?" 

3. Keep Things Simple. The best thing to do is not overwhelm prospects with too much on pricing. Just keep things simple & easy to follow! Keep pricing pages (online, in email or on paper) uncluttered. Even if your pricing is complex, use a bullet tip sheet as a starting point. This helps to break down and make it easy for prospects to digest the costs involved.

Acquire The Numbers That Help You to Close

Depending on the rapport you have with your prospect, getting a figure on the amount they are willing to spend on solving their problem may not be easy. There are a few questions you need to avoid that will help you move forward with closing the prospect. It’s important you steer clear of questions like:

1. What would it be worth to you in solving this challenge you are facing? 
2. How big is your budget?

Toward the end of your discovery meeting, when you’ve gathered other data like the problems they are facing, the pain points they are experiencing etc You can begin to ask questions like -

• “Hey Jim, thanks for providing me with information on this problem you’re experiencing. What sort of price range to you have for solving this challenge right now?”
• “Jim, thank you for answering these questions. From experience, a solution to your problem would be in around the $500 - $1000 per month price range. Is that something you could work with each month if it meant eliminating problem X?”
• “Jim, what could you see investing in order to overcome these challenges?”

When you get these answers, your job becomes easier in terms of knowing what sort of budget they have in place for your solution. You become aware of what they are willing to invest. From there you can diagnose whether or not this prospect is a good fit for your solution.

How To Tell If a Prospect Is Ready To Buy

You’ve passed the discovery meeting and figured out your prospects need and decided to offer a proposal that demonstrates the solution to their problem or the opportunity they are seeking. So how can we tell if the prospect is ready to buy? Are there any signals they convey that tell us about their interest in our solution?

Before they say “Will you take cash or credit card”, you want to look for signs that demonstrate their interest or non interest for that matter.

Interested Prospects

If prospects are interested in your offer, they will usually carry out a number of different behaviors. They’ll do things like…

• Prospects will ask more questions about the product or service you are offering. Asking questions means they want to see how the solution fits into their current situation.
• They ask about specific pricing questions. This is usually after they understand the value of your offer. Examples of questions would include:

1. Do you offer financing?
2. What’s the best price you can give me?
3. Are there any discounts available?

• They change their tone of voice. If their voices go up, it means they are getting excited about your offer. The opposite of this is if their tone of voice is down, it can mean they’re getting excited or concerned.
• They lean forward. When a prospect leans forward it shows a spike in interest. Its positive body language that gives you signals of further engagement in relation to your offer.
• Their expressions change. When their eyes light up or they smile as you convey value, their minds are often positively stimulated as they recognize the positive possibilities
• When the prospect is making possessive statements, indicating how they would use your product or service specifically. Some examples of this would be:

"These windows would complement our existing design of the house."

"This software would be an efficient upgrade to our current system"

"This tv movie bundle would come in handy over Christmas when we have the whole family around"

"It would come in handy when…" 

• They begin switching specific language from “if” to “when” in their questions. When they ask more of those questions, they're beginning to visualize what happens after the sale is complete.
• When prospects start asking about specific delivery or customer care questions such as:

“How long would it take to implement after we sign?”

“What does your after sales care look like?”

“Would it be possible to get delivery by February 1st?”

“What are the delivery options?”

• They start asking about “next step” questions. These would include questions like:

“If I’m interested, what happens next?"

"Where do we go from here?"

"Is it possible to have you meet with my management team?"

Uninterested Prospects

As important as it is to recognize buying behavior, it’s just as important to figure out when your prospect is not so keen on your offering. Even some of the best qualified prospects can throw a spanner in the works. They might seem interested, but in reality, aren’t as serious about closing as you are.

It’s imperative that you understand why prospects hesitate and recognize when they’re doing it so you can either double-down your efforts or walk away before wasting each other’s time.

So what sort of signs should you be looking for that convey a disinterest in what you are proposing? Let’s talk about them below…

• When they are not comfortable! Prospects will usually hesitate if they don’t feel comfortable with the relationship that has been established with you as a salesperson. It’s imperative that you've earned their trust by offering up value, respect and a good rapport. These elements have to be rock solid and in doing so, there will be less of a chance of hesitation to work with you and your solution going forward.
• They don’t see the value in your offer. This is a common issue that arises during the sales process. Prospects become uninterested and start flaking when they don't see the value of what’s being presented. You as a salesperson need to convey the value from the beginning of the relationship to the very end. Offer product demonstrations if possible, educate them on how the solution solves their problem, give them tips on how to transition from point A (pain point) to point B (pleasure point) and make them see the benefits of your products or service.
• They don’t have the budget. You see this happen with prospects that are not entirely qualified to deliver the funds for your solution. It’s up to you as the salesperson to properly qualify your prospects and one of the requirements is to make sure they have a budget in place to do so.
• The timing isn't right & there is no "need" right now. Prospects balk when the sale doesn’t fit into their schedule. A change in product or service may not be needed now, or they don’t have the time to go through the process of buying. Every industry has better times for prospecting and closing.

How Prospects Begin To Show Signs of Resistance

As a sales person, you need to keep a watch out for signs of resistance from a prospect. But how do you identify that they are changing their minds:

• They repeat themselves. They ask the same questions because they’re already convinced the solution won’t work.
• They waffle on their issues. They might suddenly say that the problem your product offers is not a good a good solution.
• They Disengage with you. If you start to notice that your prospect is not attending scheduled meetings with you, or are not responding to emails, calls or social media messages, they are balking.
• They are not prepared for you. The prospects who aren’t prepared for your call or presentation – or are getting distracted with other tasks – aren’t likely to close.

So how do you win them back?

When you begin to identify the prospects who are worth more effort, try these tactics to re-interest them in closing the sale.

• Try to vary your contact approach. Call, email, visit etc at different times than you’ve tried previously. You never know... maybe the problem was bad timing. 
• Ask for little close’s. Give them reasons to say yes several times before you try to get them to say yes to closing. Ask them to read a white paper, meet for coffee, provide information and share a relevant link in social media. Easy wins.
• Find another contact. If a prospect goes dark, try to get in with another person at the organization by calling, sending an email or connecting on LinkedIn.

It’s Important to Get Commitment

To be a top salesperson, your aim should be in getting a commitment rather than on closing. The reason I say this is because commitments change behaviors for the better: Prospects are more likely to do what they say they’re going to do when salespeople do what they say they’re going to do. So when you both offer each other commitment, it helps to draw closer to the sale.

Begin Using Closing Questions

Now is a good time to start using closing questions in order to acquire commitment from the prospect. Closing questions should seem like a reasonable request from a customers perspective and not just your perspective. There shouldn’t be any anxiety... just comfortable questions that lead from one step to the next.

A great way to get comfortable with your closing questions is to use what’s called the “sensory trial close”. This is all about creating closing questions that use words such as: who, what, where, why, how much and when, in combination with sensory words like look, think, touch, sound, feel and view. 

I learned this from one of my mentors Joe Soto and it’s helped me to close deals in the past with clients. When you ask questions in this format, prospects are usually comfortable answering.

Some examples of Sensory Trial Close Questions would be:

How does that sound?

Does this logic seem sound?

Does that seem like a reasonable way to look at it?

I feel like we have accomplished everything we agreed to, so how would you suggest we move forward?

How do you feel about what we’ve discussed today?

Do you see how this can impact your business?

Move Toward Finalizing the Commitment

Once you have received commitment from your customers, you want to create clarity about what you’ll do now to further the sales process and finish the close.

Use a closing or commitment question that gets at a specific action the prospect is likely to agree to take because it makes sense considering what you’ve discussed and agreed to happen.

An example of this would be:

• I’ll have the final specs of the design to you this afternoon. Can we meet tomorrow morning at 10 or 11 to sign and get production rolling?
• I’ll have the proposal ready for you tomorrow. Shall we schedule a call tomorrow? I’m available between X & X? Does that work?
• I can get the first order delivered to your door on Friday if we can arrange financing tomorrow. What terms do you want me to establish?

There are multiple micro commitments that are established between you and your prospect over the course of the sales process. Every little commitment that is established between you both and materializes into a next step, helps to engage further and builds confidence that the deal will close.

Close That Sale!

I’ve covered a ton of information from A-Z when it comes to the entire sales process. From what to focus on when you are prospecting, to adding value, the dos and don’ts and how you know when a prospect is ready to buy. The last part is closing and as we mentioned above, getting commitment first is key to closing the sale.  

There are various questions you can ask when it comes to closing the sale. Below are a few questions you can ask when it’s time to move forward. 

Let’s take a look at a few of my favorite closing questions below. Please feel free to experiment with them the next time you are ready to close a sale in your business - 

• Are you ready to move forward? I can set up an agreement contract now
• Can we proceed now?
• Should we book a time to kick this project off?
• Are you willing to commit to doing business with us today?
• If we were to throw in (a specific freebie or added bonus), would that convince you to sign the contract today?
• Are you ready to partner with us on this today?
• What delivery date would you like me to arrange for you on this project?
• Unless you have any more questions or concerns regarding this solution, I think we’re ready to get started.
• If you sign the contract today, I can guarantee we can (fulfill a special request the prospect asked for/Waiver the setup fee involved). How does that sound?
• Which (package, tier, bundle) do you want to go with today?
• Of the three packages on offer today, which one makes the most sense for (the problem they are trying solve)

That brings us to a close on this article. It’s been a long one for sure! I wanted to pack this piece of content so that you got as much value out of it as possible. Sales can be a challenge for many businesses, so I hope after reading this, you’ll be better educated on how to deal with prospects and move them through the sales process and eventually to a close. 

Sales is a numbers game... so the more you pack your prospecting funnel, by talking with lots of prospects, the more you will churn out more sales for your business.

If you are looking to acquire more qualified prospects that are interested in what you have to offer and you need help with this, please get in touch over here. I’d love to have a chat about what your business does and how we can work together to help it grow.