Effective Closing Techniques Every Salesperson Needs to Try

Closing is one of the most important moments in the customer relationship.

When a sales professional closes with a lead, it represents the moment that person chooses to embark on a lasting relationship with the brand. Weeks or months of effort – including plenty of marketing time – have already gone into cultivating that decision.

With that in mind, the choice of the right closing techniques is essential.

An inbound sales approach changes how you relate to leads and make your sales. You’ll want to avoid old-fashioned, high-pressure sales closing techniques. Still, it remains crucial to signal your leads that now is the time and place to take action.

As with all your CTAs, if you don’t ask for the sale, you’re less likely to get it.

That said, it’s all in how you’ve asked – and what you’ve done until that moment.

Most inbound sales experts will close sales as they conclude a discovery session.

Ask yourself:

• Did you uncover your lead’s deep pain points and reasons for needing your solution?
• Did you verify qualification by leveraging the lead’s interactions with your brand?
• Did you confirm that you’ll be able to deliver the promised value to your lead?

If so, you’re in a prime position to deploy inbound sales closing techniques.

These three modern techniques will take your efforts to the next level.

1. The Question Close

Asking the right series of questions can produce value for both you and your lead.

With good questions, you can:

• Fan the flames of your lead’s desire to succeed using your product or service.
• Recognize and respond to the objections the lead may have to making a buy.
• Gain a sense for the best way to deliver excellence to the lead after the sale.

Open-ended questions will get you closer and closer to a place where you and your lead are in accord about the value of your offer. Once you’ve asked enough of these questions, you can actually take the next step and close the sale in a similar way.

For example, you may ask:

“In your opinion, does what I’m offering solve your problem?”

When the answer is yes, moving forward to signing the agreement is the obvious next step. When the answer is no, you haven’t closed the door. You have the opportunity to return to whatever specific concerns the lead articulates. Soon enough, you can aim for closure again.

2. The Assumptive Close

The assumptive close requires you to listen closely to your lead and solicit feedback from him or her at key points in the sales process. By doing so, you’ll foster the ability to deliver the exact experience your lead expects from a vendor of your caliber.

This is referred to as an “assumptive close” because it requires you to assume, from the outset, that the sale will be made. It’s up to you to guide the process in a more enthusiastic and hands-on way so you can ultimately achieve that goal.

You measure your distance to the goal with direct questions to the lead.

For example:

• After a presentation, you might ask, “Did this presentation meet your expectations?”
• After sharing content, “Does this sound like something valuable to your company?”

Your objective throughout is to be alert to interest, engagements, and objections the lead may raise. You can take the appropriate steps right away and build a path to the final discovery call.

3. The Take Away Close

Many closing techniques use the power of psychology to spark action in your lead.

This is one of them.

In this technique, you highlight something that may be lost to focus attention on specific features and away from deal sticking points.

If you know your lead has the necessary budget, but you just can’t seem to agree on price, try taking away a feature in exchange for a lower price.

Rather than creating immediate agreement at the lower price, this often has a curious effect: It kindles a greater sense of urgency around the feature that may be lost. Typically, that drives a larger number of qualified leads to pursue the original agreement – at the original price.

Confident Closing Methods Are Key to Turning Your Leads into Customers

For inbound sales professionals, closing techniques are never intended to be manipulative.

That said, they do an absolutely essential job: Your closing techniques turn your lead’s built up goodwill and enthusiasm into action. When you deploy closing techniques, what you’re really doing is fighting against a natural state of complacency.

Strong closing techniques kick inertia and apathy out of the picture. They eliminate ambiguity and give the lead clarity on the next steps, just the way you would do for an optimized landing page. And they give you the satisfaction of knowing you played a vital role, too!