How to Engage With Your Prospects to Close More Deals?

The manner in which consumers make a purchase decision has been changing for quite some time now. This is the reason why it is important to re-evaluate the sales strategy with the workforce every now and then. The ways you engage your prospects have to keep changing. They cannot be the same as time evolves.

We all know and understand that the process of prospecting is the most important aspect of the sales cycle because so much time and energy go into looking for customers. If you make sure that you do your research properly, there is a good chance that you will have an easy time targeting a new market and focusing on prospects that can be converted eventually.

Selling something can become easy if you manage to successfully find a balance between assertive but not arrogant or intruding. This can be done with careful planning but fortunately and an effective strategy in place so that you can make sure that your company is staying consistent in closing more deals.

In this blog, we will discuss the various ways in which you can engage with your prospects to close more deals. However, first, we will delve into an overview of closing deals effectively.

Closing a Sales Deal

Closing a sales deal is the most important part of the cycle and to do that successfully means that you must do your research, offer solutions and anticipate objections. There are a number of techniques that can be used to close the deal including offering a summary of features, enticing the customer with a great offer, or walking the customer through the product.

Right from walking the customers through a demo to making sure that you answer their questions properly, the sales professionals dedicate a significant amount of time in closing deals. This makes sense because closing the sales deal successfully is the most important part of the cycle.

It takes a lot more than being in communication with the prospects to persuade them about spending their money on you. Closing the deals is more like an art that demands the sales professionals be proactive and adopt strategies that can work. Let’s look at these strategies one by one.

1. Thorough Research

You need to understand the working of both your company and the probable prospects of your company so that you can become successful. The first and the most important step is to engage in thorough research. You have to ensure that you are well versed about all that your company can possibly do to engage with the prospect and offer valuable service to the prospect.

In addition, also make sure that you know all the products and services that are best suited to your prospects. Take some time to understand how you will pitch the product to the prospect so that you can gain the lead successfully. Learn what fits your prospects in the best way by getting to know the prospects and knowing their preferences.

Although the point of contact is a great place to start, you must expand way beyond that if you think that it is possible. Make a point to speak to others at the company and particularly the ones who are working in different departments so that you can learn about different ideas and how they define the company’s pain points. When you will make a point to have this conversation, you will gain a much better understanding of all that the company needs and the way in which using products and services can help in reaching objectives.

2. Meet Your Prospects

Begin by analyzing in a detailed way where you want to meet your best customers. In many cases, the best customers count as the most profitable customers and this is something that helps in singling out the most profitable places to hang out. Start thinking in terms of industry events or various social organizations because it is important to gain clarity about what events and activities are your prospects likely to attend.

Other than this, take some time to think in terms of digital presence. You should know and understand more about the social media channels, digital publications, and news feed that the prospects are more than likely to visit and use. In case you are in B2B sales, there are high chances that most of your customers will be on LinkedIn which means that you must establish a strong presence there.

Using LinkedIn does not just help you in finding out about almost everything about prospects but also helps you warm up your approach with a mutual connection. This particular information can further help in mapping out an action plan that tells you where you should go to find and connect with your potential customers.

3. Call Lists

You will be in possession of a cold call list and the warm lead list and even a lost lead list. It is important to prioritize all these lists and take some time every day to call people on your lists. You must not underestimate the potential of a phone call because many great leads come from phone calls. In addition, making a phone call to a completely new lead can be one of the most effective things to do.

A useful tip is to write down a list of open-ended questions for all prospects. Be prepared with dialogues that can enable you to know more about the needs and wishes of the customers while understanding what makes them decide things. If you manage to maintain an interesting conversation, the process of converting leads becomes easy.

Engage them in as many ways that you think can possibly work. Right from having valuable solutions to their problems to inviting them for an online event that your company is hosting, do everything. Lastly, remember to stay in touch. When you work consistently with the list, you will be able to turn even the lukewarm leads to warmer ones and finally hot leads eventually.

4. Personalized Emails

It is not so advisable to think that email use is dead as an effective sales tool. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Emails can be used to convince buyers effectively. That said, the rule of mass emails is slowly going out of the market. You can definitely send mass emails, and see who replies but once you have clarity about an initial interest shown by a lead, start sending personalized emails.

Make sure that the content of the email that you send is entirely tailor-made for the prospect because your job is to leave an impression on the prospect by making them think that they are valued. You have to show the prospect that you know about their company or interests. Make sure that the content is specific and also addresses the needs of the prospect.

Also, if you want to make sure that your leads open and read your emails then you must make sure that your email looks good on mobile devices as well because you rest assured that most prospects are going to read your emails on the go. The emails that are optimized for mobile devices generate a high click-through rate as compared to the ones that are not optimized.

5. Be Friendly

You cannot expect to close a sale for the very first time when you meet a prospect. It is necessary to understand that the most important aspect of prospecting is relationship building. In case you cannot be friendly with your prospects then they wouldn’t be interested in doing business with you.

Other than the facial cues and mannerisms, your personality should also be able to shine through to the prospect so that they become more inclined to listen to your pitch or give you the time to review your product or service. Think about different ways in which you can come across as friendly and open with your prospects and make adjustments in the way you deal with them to be more successful.

6. Connect On Social Media

The use of social media is becoming prevalent when it comes to prospecting. So many people think that they understand how social media works when it comes to sales, but the fact is that it is harder than it seems. When it comes to prospecting, it is recommended that you keep using tried and tested platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn which are geared for business-to-business contacts.

One of your biggest allies for connecting with prospects on the internet is your content which can be easily shared on social media. There is an absolute surety that you will find your prospects are and it is your job to find out who your target audience is while reaching out to the community with well-planned content that is capable of engaging with the prospects.

7. Practice Persistence

Anytime you are engaging with your prospects, you have to remember that you should be persistent in pursuing them. It is not possible that you will contact a prospect once and close a sale, although this has a high chance of happening on events.

The point is that you are reaching out to the target prospects, be it in person, on the phone, over email, etc. You will have to learn the skill of following up. Remember when you follow up with your prospects, you maintain yourself in their memory. Think about all the commercials, particularly the ones that are most memorable.

You will discover that it was that catchy jingle that is registered in your subconscious. The tune that is stuck in your mind will make it impossible to forget the jingle. As a salesperson, your aim should be to become that jingle so that your prospects can never forget you or what you sell.

8. Brand Connection

From the time we were in the 20th century, brands have evolved significantly. There have been powerful collaborations with businesses and in contemporary sales and marketing, it is becoming more important than ever for brands to connect with their customers.

At the time when you are dealing with your prospects, you have to understand what makes them move so you can successfully position your product and service as the solution to their needs. Many times, you can connect with customers on matters other than salesperson customer relationships.

Follow your prospects and make sure that you share something that you feel they would be interested in. Find a cause that they support and start building your rapport around the same. When you are genuinely interested in the same things that your prospects are, you can easily connect with them and build trust that results in conversions.

9. Serve the Prospects

Sales is not so much about customer service because in that you are trying to please the prospect. An important thing to remember is that prospects are humans and they want to be treated with dignity and fairness. When you make the effort of making your prospect feel important, they will want to do business with you.

Trust building is in fact important in the sales process. With trust, it becomes easy to change prospects into customers while maintaining a level of consistent engagement. Do not forget about the prospects once they have been converted because they will feel used and will never continue doing business with you. It takes some practice, but engaging prospects with strong customer service will enable you to close a lead.

Conclusion

Sales are something that requires your attention through and through. If you are successful in keeping at it, you will definitely get good results. Just remember that the process of engaging with your prospects and closing more deals requires practice, but if you really get into it with full dedication and confidence, you can do the same easily.

All the steps that are mentioned above can help you genuinely in engaging with prospects and closing subjective deals. Follow them and you will see results.